CINCINNATI — The 2020 election season is starting to wind down in Ohio and as results are solidified it marks the beginning of the end for Ohio’s current congressional district map in the voting process.

What You Need To Know

  • Ohio State legislators will soon redraw the congressional districts after US Census data is finalized

  • It is expected Ohio will lose one district, due to slowed population growth

  • Ohio currently has 16 congressional districts, which will remain until the 2022 midterm elections

  • New provisions are in place to potentially allow for less oddly shaped districts and also limit the years the district is established

Currently, there are 16 congressional districts, but that soon may change. The current congressional district map that will remain in place until 2022. But every 10 years as the U.S. Census Data is processed, district lines are redrawn — a process state legislators will begin in the near future.

University of Cincinnati Professor of Political Science David Niven explains how that begins.

“The first part is the census count of our total population and that produces the number of seats that each state gets,” Niven said. “That’s just a strict math formula. And Ohio is likely to lose one of its congressional seats, not because it's losing population, but because it’s not growing as fast as other states.”

Once we know how many seats Ohio is appointed, that’s when the legislature gets to work redrawing district lines.

“That, of course, is a highly contentious process, because if you draw the lines well, you maximize your political power,” Niven said.

The state’s current map is full of oddly shaped districts — a process better known as gerrymandering — which has greatly impacted elections since the map was implemented.

“Obviously, the map that we have right now in Ohio is a monument to the success of gerrymandering,” Niven said. “In the ten year history of the map not a single seat has changed party hands. Not a single Democrat has beaten a Republican, not a single Republican has beaten a Democrat. And of course the Republicans are very happy with that, because the way the lines were drawn twelve of the sixteen seats favor Republicans.”

He said with all 80 races over the past 10 years going in favor of the incumbent when the map was drawn, changes will be made, especially with an amended process to redraw the lines.

“There’s a variety of provisions that if the Republicans can’t gain support from the Democrats, it could limit a map to only four years, and then be redrawn four years later,” he said.

But that doesn’t mean we’ll know what to expect.

“The reality is, we don’t know how much these new rules are going to change the behavior of the map makers,” Niven said. “If they honor the spirit of the new rules, then you’re going to see districts that look like natural shapes. You’re gonna see boxes and shapes that you’ve seen in nature, rather than the zig-zag lines we have in our district today.”

He said hopefully the new map will be more clear, less confusing to voters and better represent the people within the new districts.

“What we know about gerrymandering, why we care about it, on the surface we care because it shifts power,” Niven said. "On the surface, we care because it can take a party that wins less than half the votes and give them a big majority of the seats, which feels wrong. But the other big part of the story is, it’s just harder to be represented under gerrymandering. If Cincinnati had one member of congress, Cincinnati would be the focus of that member of congress’ service, and it would be a lot easier for the voters of Cincinnati to all know they were in that district.”

Niven said the first drafts for the new map could be unveiled as early as next spring.