Tim Burga, President of the Ohio AFL-CIO, joined the America’s Work Force Union Podcast to discuss the Citizens Not Politicians initiative to fix Ohio’s gerrymandered voting maps through a constitutional amendment.
After submitting over 700,000 signatures by the July 1 deadline, the Citizens Not Politicians effort to amend the Ohio Constitution via a statewide vote is one step closer to changing the state’s redistricting efforts. Burga said there were officially 100,000 more qualified signatures than were required.
The next step will be a meeting of the Ballot Board to decide the language used on the ballot. Burga explained how some past issues with misleading language appeared on Ohio ballots. While there are concerns over the same thing happening, Burga said that labor in the state is ready to educate voters about the soon-to-be state issue.
Finally, while the efforts to fix redistricting seem to be supported by the general public, several conservative legislators are speaking out on the initiative, Burga said. He shared what Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R) had to say about the redistricting initiative and his preference for an alternativel solution for redistricting in the state. Burga provided his opinion on DeWine’s comments and why he believes that would not be a good solution.
Listen to the show above to hear more from Burga.