The Ohio Redistricting Commission is still working on creating maps before today's deadline runs out. While leaders have been circulating around the Statehouse, none of the negotiations have been public. This has good government groups suggesting commissioners might be breaking public meeting laws.
Commissioners are working towards an agreement for new 10-year House and Senate district maps. Staff says the leaders have been in and out of different meetings throughout the day.
But government watchdog group Common Cause Ohio's Catherine Turcer suggests that could be in violation of open meetings law, and against the spirit of the redistricting reform passed in 2015.
"We don't know what they're doing but how are they not having discussions and conversations and making decisions out of the public eye."
Commission staff says leaders have not been in violation of Ohio's open meetings law.
The maps need the approval of two Democrats to last ten years. Maps that pass without Democratic support would last four years.
