“Ohio Democrats nearly match Republicans in Statehouse votes, but will remain in the deep minority; what’s ahead for gerrymandering”

Plain Dealer:

As Ohio Republicans won the race for every statewide executive job from the governor on down this year, something different happened in lower-profile races.

The Democrats ran much more competitive in total votes for the 116 Ohio House and Senate elections across the state, cleveland.com found in tabulating the unofficial returns.

It’s a takeaway from Election 2018 that isn’t the usual headline grabber.  More importantly, in terms of controlling Ohio’s government, the GOP won 73 of the 116 Statehouse races.

But the Republicans scored their wins for 63 percent of the seats while collecting just over 50 percent of the total vote.

This is a lot like what happened in Ohio’s 16 congressional districts, where Republicans won 75 percent of the seats with just 52 percent of the overall vote.

These are two fresh examples of how skillfully gerrymandered legislative districts can sway the balance of power – especially when one party is in full control of drawing the maps as was the case for the current districts.

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