On October 14, the Ohio Supreme Court ruled unanimously that opponents of the new U.S. House and legislative districts are entitled to submit the redistricting plans to a referendum. See this story. The Republican majority in the legislature had argued that the redistricting bill is not subject to the referendum process, because the bill contained an appropriation. However, the State Supreme Court rejected that as a gimmick. Here is the 6-page opinion, State ex rel Ohioans for Fair Districts v Husted, 2011-5333.
This means that Ohio can’t use the new district boundaries during the next few months, because laws subject to referendum can’t go into effect until the voters vote. Since the primary is in March 2012, that presents a large problem for election administration. Democrats and their allies in Ohio have shown that they do have the resources to complete successful referendum petitions.
P.R. in all legislative body elections — to END the ANTI-Democracy gerrymander laws — and the resulting EVIL robot party hacks — esp. the one party safe seat MONSTERS.
Legislative redistricting is not done by the legislature and therefore are not subject to the referendum process (which is not specific to redistricting, but for any law passed by the legislature).
The simplest solution is not to conduct congressional primaries, and hold special elections next December if the referendum fails.