House Bill 369 reunites Ohio’s primaries to single day in March

Speaker of the Ohio House William G. Batchelder (R-Medina) announced today that a revised congressional map has passed the Ohio House with strong bipartisan support. The new map, found in House Bill 369, was introduced by State Representative Matt Huffman (R-Lima) in early November after working closely with members of the House Minority Caucus.

“This map represents the second fair and legal map passed by the Ohio House of Representatives in recent weeks,” Speaker Batchelder said. “I am pleased that the House Republican Caucus has led the charge in not only passing a competitive congressional map, but also in ensuring that Ohioans have only one state and federal primary in 2012.”

Among other things, the bill reunites Ohio’s primaries to one day on March 6, 2012 and will save the state $15 million by doing so. It also creates a bi-partisan legislative task force to review congressional redistricting and issue a report to the General Assembly next year. The filing deadline for presidential and congressional candidates will be reopened to a December 30, 2011 deadline if signed into law.

“This bill contains a number of positive provisions, including reuniting Ohio's primaries and saving the taxpayers $15 million,” Rep. Huffman said. “The House Republican Caucus never stopped negotiations with the members of the House Minority Caucus and incorporated a number of their suggestions in this bill. We appreciate their support of House Bill 369.”

House Bill 369 passed with a vote of 77-17 and contains an emergency clause which, if passed by the Ohio Senate, will take effect upon the governor’s signature.

Am.Sub.HB369 Map