Where are elections truly “rigged”? The label doesn’t apply to the presidential race, whatever the protestations of Donald Trump. It doesn’t fit for local elections or statewide races. The problem doesn’t involve exceedingly rare voter fraud. The obvious places where elections have been predetermined are U.S. House districts, all 16 across Ohio.
How are they rigged? Through the congressional redistricting process. The job of redrawing district lines belongs to the state legislature. Lawmakers take up the task after each Census. After the 2010 count, Republicans in charge of the legislature, encouraged by John Boehner, then the U.S. House speaker, proved most aggressive in seizing the advantage.
They packed Democratic voters into four districts, and made the remaining 12 easy pickings for their party. In 2014, no incumbent won with less than 58 percent of vote, every race a landslide. Even in 2012, a presidential year, Barack Obama carrying the state, Republicans captured 12 districts.
The result this year will be the same. The Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota recently noted that if all the Ohio incumbents win on Nov. 8, it will be the first time since 1812, or since the state was divided into multiple congressional districts.
So voters in Akron and surroundings should know that short of something extraterrestrial, David Joyce, a Republican, will win in the 14th District, Jim Renacci, a Republican, in the 16th District, Tim Ryan, a Democrat, in the 13th District and Marcia Fudge, a Democrat, in the 11th District. Their opponents have no chance.
This editorial page and others long have described the harm that flows from this gerrymandering by Republicans. The worry for incumbents isn’t the general election but a contested primary, facing challenges from the extremes, feeding the polarization that has done such damage to the work of governing.
Candidates have less reason for appealing to voters in the center. As a result, compromise becomes a less appealing concept.
To their credit, state lawmakers did repair the way legislative districts are redrawn, setting up a system that requires Democrats and Republicans to strike a deal. Voters gave their overwhelming approval a year ago.
Unfortunately, Republican legislative leaders ignored the cue. They have stalled efforts to apply a similar system to congressional districts. Cliff Rosenberger, the House speaker, even has suggested waiting until after the next Census, in effect, proposing a 17-year plan, Ohioans seeing the repairs to House districts in the 2030s.
Democrats and Republicans in the Ohio Senate gave strong support for the new system. Yet Keith Faber, the Senate president, and allies now appear to have lost interest.
As this presidential election again shows, Ohio is not a 75-25 state for Republicans. It is closer to 50-50, and its congressional delegation should reflect the true breakdown. John Kasich, Jon Husted, Mike DeWine, Dave Yost and Josh Mandel, all Republican state officeholders, agree that Ohio should adopt the new bipartisan system for congressional districts. If they cannot bring their fellow Republicans in the legislature to act, then they should join with Democrats and advocacy groups to put a measure on the statewide ballot in November 2017.
Enough of rigged elections.