Dayton Daily News...
District map may violate federal law, NAACP says
By Katie Wedell 

DAYTON — The Dayton Unit of the NAACP is questioning whether the new Ohio congressional map violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 by splitting Montgomery County’s black voters between two districts. 

According to an analysis by the Ohio Campaign for Accountable Redistricting published in Sunday’s Dayton Daily News, the proposed map puts 59 percent of the county’s black population in the new 10th District and 41 percent in U.S. House Speaker John Boehner’s 8th District. 

“When you take the minority community and split it in half, the value in terms of their political power is diminished,” said William Gillispie, retired deputy city manager for Dayton, at a press conference Monday at the Dayton Unit’s headquarters. 

The Voting Rights Act of 1965 prohibits voting practices or procedures that discriminate on the basis of race. The NAACP contends that the new map is intended to dilute the influence of black voters, a practice that they say is prohibited under a 1982 amendment to the act. 

The group said they will support a referendum on the bill in 2012 if it is signed into law by Gov. John Kasich. Ohio Democratic Chairman Chris Redfern has already said Democrats might mount such a campaign. 

Legal Redress Chair, Mia Wortham Spells said the NAACP would also consider legal action. 

“We could file for injunctive relief and ask that the federal court draws the map,” she said. 

Dayton Unit President Derrick Foward said Boehner has a poor NAACP report card score, voting for NAACP supported legislation only about 10 percent of the time. 

Three Democrats in the Ohio House, all black, voted for the proposed map. State Rep. Clayton Luckie, D-Dayton, did not cast a vote. 

Roberts said those legislators were voting to protect “a minority majority” in a northeastern Ohio district. “We are concerned about our community here,” he said. 

Read it at the Dayton Daily News