The Ohio House & Senate on December 15th Passed HB 369 creating the new 2012 Congressional District Maps & Creating a single Primary Election to be held March 6, 2012.
After months of Republicans and Democrats trying to work through differences with the 2012 Congressional district maps, legislators finally were able to pass a compromise before the end of the year. HB 369 also included provisions for Ohio to have a single primary in 2012. Legislation passed earlier this fall had a March 6, 2012 primary for local elections, Ohio House and Senate districts, as well as a June primary for the office of President and Ohio’s Congressional Districts.
HB 369 creates a single primary election to be conducted on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in March (March 6, 2012) for the purpose of nominating candidates for all offices that are scheduled for election in 2012 and for the purpose of electing candidates who are scheduled for election on the day of the 2012 primary election.
In year 2012, a political subdivision or taxing authority may conduct a special election on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in August.
Additionally, HB 369 creates the Redistricting Reform Task Force, comprised of eight members of the General Assembly who shall be equally divided between the members of the two major political parties. Not later than thirty days after the effective date of the ACT, the legislative leader of the majority caucus and the legislative leader of the minority caucus in each house of the General Assembly shall each appoint two members to the Task Force.
The Task Force shall be co-chaired by two members, one from each major political party. The legislative leaders in the House of Representatives and in the Senate who are members of the same political party shall jointly appoint a chairperson.
(B) The purpose of the Task Force shall be to create a redistricting reform proposal for consideration by the General Assembly during 2012.
(C) The Task Force shall issue a report, not later than June 30, 2012, that includes the Task Force’s recommendations for reforming the redistricting process.
(D) The Task Force shall hold a minimum of three public hearings, one of which shall be conducted after the Task Force issues its report, to allow for meaningful public discussion of the recommendations included in the report.
State of Ohio Launches Public Notice Website
Ohio state and local government entities required by the Ohio Revised Code to publish public notices multiple times in a newspaper are able to reduce their costs by using the State Public Notice website, found at PublicNotice.Ohio.gov. The public will be able to search for and browse public notices for free, and there is no charge for state and local governments to post notices to the site.
“The site has the potential to pull together bid notices from more than 3,900 local governments and schools, making searches simpler for businesses pursuing government contracts which should increase the number of bidders for projects, further increasing savings for taxpayers,” said Randy Cole, president of the state’s controlling board, which handles certain adjustments needed to the state budget.
The site was created by the Ohio Department of Administrative Services’ Office of Information Technology as a result of the most recent state budget bill. New Ohio Revised Code section 7.16 allows a state agency or political subdivision, after initially publishing the notice in full in a general circulation newspaper, to subsequently publish an “abbreviated” notice in the newspaper if the notice directs the public to the full notice on the state public notice website.