COLUMBUS, Ohio — The Ohio Redistricting Commission plans to meet each day through next Monday’s deadline to submit a new set of legislative maps.

All commissioners agreed to meet every day, either virtually or in person, and also hired two mediators who are being loaned from the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals, so it will not cost the commission any money. ​

The mediators’ primary job is to help commissioners talk through their issues with one another. It sounds basic, but it is something the Democrats and Republicans were not been able to do or were unwilling to do in the past six months.

“I think the mediation piece is really the most important component of all of this, because at the end of the day, commission members are the ones who are making the decisions about this and having a neutral party to work out where the conflict is, is extremely important,” said Ohio House Minority Leader Allison Russo, D-Upper Arlington. “So that is actually, I think, the most critical and important piece of this new process.”

Ohio House Speaker Robert Cupp, R-Lima, said the mediators will help communication flow during the process.

“They will sort of search out ways to bridge gaps. That’s what mediators do to reach the goal of having a final product,” said Cupp.

There will also be two independent mapmakers, who commissioners expect to fly in Wednesday and meet with the commission publicly at 5 p.m.​ when the commission will give instructions for the mapmakers on how the process will go over the next week.

The commission also is ready to bring in outside help to assist with the drawing of legislative maps. ​Democratic and Republican commissioners each agreed Monday to the other’s national redistricting experts.

The two mapmakers, Douglas Johnson of California and Michael McDonald of Florida, must sign conflict disclosure forms before being hired.

The bipartisan agreement has lawmakers on both sides optimistic about the future.

“We’re trying something different and that is also positive because doing the same thing over and over again has not yielded good outcomes,” Russo said Monday.

Ohio Senate President Matt Huffman, R-Lima, said he’s ready to see how things play out.

“We’re just going to have to see in the next two days before [McDonald] and Mr. Johnson appear if there’s any problems,” said Huffman.

The commission must draw and adopt new maps by next Monday. If there is bipartisan support, they will be 10-year maps. If not, they will be four-year maps. ​

Meanwhile, on Tuesday, the Ohio Redistricting Commission officially responded on to the objection filed Monday to the congressional map. The map the commission adopted earlier in March, Republicans said, favors the GOP in at least 10 of the state’s 15 districts.

Secretary of State Frank LaRose, R-Ohio, filed a response, and Huffman and Cupp filed a joint response.

LaRose said the National Democratic Redistricting Committee, who filed the objection, is “too late.”

He said the congressional map “is already being implemented,” military and overseas ballots are being mailed, early in-person voting is about to begin April 5 and “changing course at this late stage will cause further chaos for Ohio’s boards of elections, voters and candidates.”

Meanwhile, Huffman and Cupp said the national Democrats filed an enormous amount of evidence but the commission has not had enough time to review or present their own evidence to rebut the NDRC.

Also, Huffman and Cupp said the Court should wait until after the November general election to do anything further with the map.

The NDRC, led by former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, said the new map adopted by the Ohio Redistricting Commission on March 2 unfairly favors Republicans.

Republicans have said the map creates 10 GOP-safe districts, three Democratic-safe districts and two toss-up districts the lean Democratic, likely resulting in a 10-5 Republican-favored map.

The map is being used in the upcoming May 3 primary, however if struck down, LaRose said in the past that congressional candidates could not take part in the election.