From dispatch.com:

If the candidates for governor, auditor and secretary of state live up to their words, the state Apportionment Board could take a new, politically fairer approach to drawing legislative districts next year.

Will Ohio really see the end of the hyper-partisan process, where the key goal is maximizing the number of seats the majority political party can win? Will politicians do away with districts that look like they could have been shaped by a 4-year-old?

State lawmakers failed to agree on a plan for reducing the politics involved in drawing Ohio’s legislative districts before the Aug. 4 deadline for placing a Constitutional amendment on the Nov. 2 ballot.

Regardless, if the will exists, little would stop the five-member board from taking a new approach to drawing a statewide map. The board is controlled by the party that wins at least two of three statewide offices: governor, auditor and secretary of state.

The statewide candidates are talking about change, but some are more definitive than others.

“We have a bad system that commands partisan decision-making because of the way our apportionment system works,” said Sen. Jon Husted, the Republican candidate for secretary of state, who led the charge on trying to get change on the November ballot.

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