To most home schoolers across the state of Ohio, the process of redistricting may not be important, at first blush. However, any change in political boundaries will mean your favorite person may not be representing you anymore. Invertly, maybe you never did like your congressman and you would invite a fresh face. You will never know unless you take a look at the maps coming out of Columbus, this week. OEF suggests you do just that. The sad fact is many citizens really do not care, as illustrated in our own home county, where a meeting was set up to address redistricting with citizens, an no one showed up!

As the battle over redistricting Ohio's Congressional districts dominates the state's political news this week, the general lack of knowledge about how district boundaries are determined (and the very different processes for deciding Congressional versus state legislative district boundaries) is striking.

The confusion is not restricted to the general populace alone (who might be excused for having better things to do with their time than research an esoteric process that occurs but once a decade), but - disturbingly - is shockingly common among many political "experts" and permeates many of the resources on which an interested observer might rely. Many "resources" get it wrong. In fact, our bet is many do not know the difference between redistricting and reappointment.

First, it is important to understand that there are two separate and distinct processes for determining legislative district boundaries in Ohio:

•    Redistricting - which refers to Congressional districts (first map below)
•    Reapportionment - which refers to state legislative districts (Ohio House and Senate maps below)

The most publicly visible and contentious battles concern Congressional Redistricting - for which constitutional authority rests with the Ohio General Assembly (state legislature). Under the Ohio Constitution and the Ohio Revised Code, The General Assembly shall divide the state into as many congressional districts as there are representatives in congress apportioned to this state by the congress of the United States for the election of one representative to congress from each district. When a new apportionment shall be made by congress, the general assembly shall divide the state into congressional districts, accordingly. Here is what the Ohio Constitution outlines as procedure in Article 11, Section 1:

The governor, auditor of state, secretary of state, one person chosen by the speaker of the House of Representatives and the leader in the Senate of the political party of which the speaker is a member, and one person chosen by the legislative leaders in the two houses of the major political party of which the speaker is not a member shall be the persons responsible for the apportionment of this state for members of the general assembly.

Such persons, or a majority of their number, shall meet and establish in the manner prescribed in this Article the boundaries for each of ninety-nine house of representative districts and thirty-three senate districts. Such meeting shall convene on a date designated by the governor between August 1 and October 1 in the year one thousand nine hundred seventy-one and every tenth year thereafter. The governor shall give such persons two weeks advance notice of the date, time, and place of such meeting.

The governor shall cause the apportionment to be published no later than October 5 of the year in which it is made, in such manner as provided by law.

The Ohio General Assembly has until October 5, 2011 to enact legislation setting the new boundaries for the state's Congressional districts; if the state legislature is unable to pass legislation through both chambers (the Republican-controlled House AND Senate) during the regular session, a special session may be convened to make another attempt.

Once (if!) the legislature passes a redistricting bill, the governor may sign the bill into law - or veto the bill, sending it back to the state legislature. In some cases, the threat of a gubernatorial veto could pull the General Assembly back, but in this case this year, that will not happen as all majorities rest with Republicans.

Finally, if and when the redistricting legislation is passed and signed into law, it must survive any legal challenges, which can happen in the case of one majority party holding all control of the process, as is in Ohio. Below, is a chart which can be found on Ballotpedia's site, along with much more information than is provided here: