Voting groups want Ohio to move 2022 primary to June because of census data delay

Ohio's primary election for governor, U.S Senate all our congressional seats would be pushed from May 3, 2022 to sometime in June 2022 if a coalition of voting rights groups gets their way. "Yes, the pandemic has been a hassle, and we've had to make all kinds of adjustments, and this is just one more," Common Cause Executive Director Catherine Turcer said. The reason Turcer and the Ohio League of Women Voters want to delay the 2022 primary is that the population data used to draw maps for all the state and federal districts has been delayed. A coalition of voter advocacy groups joined forces Monday, sending a letter and holding a news conference to call on Ohio leaders to adjust to pandemic-slowed census results. The U.S. Census Bureau announced in February that its new data on who lives where wouldn't be available until Sept. 30 — five months later than usual. It's also one day before the Ohio Constitution requires lawmakers to vote on district lines for the U.S. House of Representatives. And it's 29 days after the state House and Senate maps are technically due. Basically, Ohio needs a new timeline for drawing its new state and federal districts no matter what, and some groups that helped pass the recent redistricting rule changes have ideas. "We're suggesting a lot of different ways to be flexible with the new timeline," Ohio League of Women Voters Director Jen Miller said. One suggestion was to draw both the state and federal maps at the same time instead of doing them one after the other as it says in the constitution. Another idea was to hold public meetings now and educate folks about a possible primary change. But the big proposed change was moving the primary date from May to June. The delay, they said, would give Ohio's local boards of elections more time to figure out who lives in each of the new districts, and candidates would have more time to file their paperwork. Declarations of intent to run for office are due Feb. 2, which could mean both boards and candidates would have weeks instead of months to prepare. Senate President Matt Huffman, R- Lima, previously said his goal to was finish the maps by early December. Huffman, who has worked on redistricting for years, didn't immediately respond to a request for comment on moving Ohio's primary. His support will be crucial because state lawmakers are the ones with the constitutional power to move elections. ___ (c)2021 The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio) Visit The Columbus Dispatch (Columbus, Ohio) at www.dispatch.com Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.