Eighty percent of Athens voters who are registered with a party are Democrats, but the congressional candidate who will represent them has a 90 percent chance of being Republican.
Over the past six years, during three congressional elections, a Republican never won the vote in Athens County and gained a congressional seat in the 15th District, according to data from the Athens County Board of Elections. That lack of support from Athens voters, however, hasn’t stopped Republican candidates from winning the election and becoming representative of the district Athens is part of.
Athens County is part of the 15th District. That could disenfranchise Democratic voters through gerrymandering, said some experts, like Sarah Poggione, chair of the political science department at Ohio University. Because such a majority of voters in the rest of the district are Republicans, the relatively small number of Democratic voters in Athens are unlikely to sway the vote of the district.
Every 10 years, the U.S. House of Representatives must adjust how many representatives each state is allowed. That decision is based on the population of the state in census data, Poggione said. Once the number of representatives is chosen, states redraw their congressional lines to develop districts that elect the allowed number of representatives.
Creating new districts, however, is done by legislatures in most states, and legislatures often have partisan bias in favor of the majority party regardless of which party is in charge. That system has created issues in states other than Ohio as well, in states such as Pennsylvania, Maryland and Texas, according to CNN.
“Since most states assign state legislatures the task of redrawing district lines, the majority party in control of the legislature attempts to redraw lines to advantage its party in Congress,” Poggione said. “This is a type of gerrymandering.”
Ohioans will have the opportunity to change that process because of an issue appearing on the ballot May 8. Ohio Issue 1 would require a redistricting plan to be passed with 60 percent of the vote in each chamber. Additionally, the proposed plan to redistrict would need support from at least half the members of the minority party.
“If the legislature couldn’t come up with a plan that can pass with these requirements, then Issue 1 would charge (a bipartisan group) to develop a plan,” Poggione said. “Issue 1 would make partisan gerrymandering harder.”
Athens County Republicans Chair Pete Couladis said Issue 1 is a good compromise between both political parties.
“Historically, both major political parties have used gerrymandering, or carving up a district, to one's political advantage,” he said. “I believe there is bipartisan support for this issue.”
Currently, most of Athens County is located in Ohio’s 15th District, but a small portion of the southeastern part of the county is in Ohio’s 6th District. Each of those districts is large in size. The 15th, for example, is made up of a portion or all of 12 different counties. The 6th district has 18. Since the districts are so large in size, economic and political interests can differ greatly within, Poggione said.
“Given that the different economic and political interests in these different parts of the state are all contained in one district, people in Athens may feel like their voices are diluted given the competing concerns from other parts that are included in the district,” she said.
Mary Costello, Athens County League of Women Voters co-president, said the way the districts are laid out makes it difficult for representatives to cover that large of an area and properly represent the different groups within the district. It can be hard for the minority party, like many Democrats in Athens County, to have their vote mean something.
“When a district is gerrymandered to benefit one political party ... members of the minority party are often actually disenfranchised because there are not enough of them to provide any competition to the candidate of the majority party,” she said.
Congressman Steve Stivers has been in office since 2011. In 2012, he won about 62 percent of the vote in the 15th District, according to Ohio Secretary of State data. In Athens County, however, he only received about 30 percent of the vote.
Stivers is from Upper Arlington, which is about 80 miles from Athens and has a median household income of about $102,000, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. The city of Athens, on the other hand, has a median household income of about $22,000.
Stivers is also the chair of the campaign supporting Issue 1 and wants to see an end to gerrymandering, he said.
“I make it a priority to spend time in each of my counties every year — and that includes Athens County,” Stivers said in an email.
With the size and layout of the districts, representatives don’t necessarily match up with voters’ values in every part of the district.
“The district is not fair because it allows candidates to focus on winning votes in more affluent areas, rather than working for the votes of rural and Appalachians individuals,” Sam Miller, the vice president for College Democrats of Ohio, said. “I find it very hard to believe that those in the suburbs of Columbus are facing the same issues of Appalachian Ohio.”
