CINCINNATI — A federal order is telling the state of Ohio to use Senate and House district maps previously rejected by the Ohio Supreme Court.
The federal order states that unless Ohio comes up with another solution by May 28, Map 3 — which was previously submitted and rejected — will be imposed.
The map will only be imposed for this year's election on Aug. 2, according to the federal order.
The court document claims this decision was based on choosing "the best of our bad options."
According to court documents, the decision to use these rejected maps is based on the fact that no map had won the approval of both the Redistricting Commission and the Ohio Supreme Court. Secondly, Map 3 gave the state the most time to fix its own problem.
Secretary of State La Rose previously said they resubmitted their third try at the map because it's already programmed in the county boards of elections system. He claimed it's the only option in order to hold a primary for state senate and house seats on Aug. 2
The redistricted maps were originally due on April 20. Prior to that date, four sets of legislative district maps were deemed unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court. That caused races requiring those districts to be removed from the May 3 primary.
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