OAKWOOD VILLAGE, Ohio — More than 1.6 million Ohioans cast their ballot in this past week’s primary election. For some voters, the surprise of the day didn’t come when the results came in, but rather when they received their ballot.
News 5 received several calls from voters who believed they lived in a certain congressional district, only to show up to vote and find out their district had changed.
While redistricting battles continue for state representatives and state senate districts, the Ohio Secretary of State posted that new congressional districts were enacted on March 2, 2022.
Anybody else forget that while redistricting battles continue for state races in Columbus, your congressional district may have changed when you voted in this past primary? pic.twitter.com/cboJRXQgDr
— Clay LePard (@ClayLePard) May 5, 2022
For 86-year-old Nancella Harris in Oakwood Village, it came as quite the surprise when she realized the same candidate she voted for in Ohio’s 11th Congressional District was not on her ballot, which now offered unfamiliar names in Ohio’s 7th Congressional District.
“With all the ability to communicate today, there’s no excuse,” she said. “You expect your people you put into office to be planful and you expect them to be informative and it didn’t happen. That’s a problem that I wasn't notified.”
Harris added that she even still received mailings from candidates in her old congressional district leading up to Election Day.
News 5 reached out to several elections officials across the state, who confirmed that redistricting in all sorts of races occurs at different times and no agency is responsible for telling Ohio voters what their new political boundaries are.
In a statement to News 5, Rob Nichols, a spokesperson at the Ohio Secretary of State’s office, explained how that office recently launched a website, FindMyDistrict.OhioSos.Gov, to help Ohioans identify their congressional district.
“Redistricting is required every 10 years under federal law, and inevitably some voters will find themselves voting in a different congressional district than in years past,” he said.
Going forward, Harris told News 5 that she hopes state and local leaders will make a better effort of informing voters when their district changes.
“If you’re uninformed, you don’t have your rights,” she said.
