Dollar General couldn't put thumb on scale neither should Ohio politicians

Mike Curtin is a career newspaperman with 38 years at the Columbus Dispatch followed by four years in the Ohio House (2013-2016).

In the business and consumer marketplace, our government goes to extraordinary lengths to ensure fair dealing — keeping thumbs off the scales.

In the political marketplace, sadly, too often it’s the opposite.

From our nation’s earliest days, government officials have worked to guarantee equity and build trust in the market for goods and services.

Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution gives Congress the power “to fix the standard of weights and measures.” On March 2, 1799, President John Adams signed the nation’s first weights and measures law.

Ever since, state and local governments have embraced the latest advances in precision measurement and enforced laws on accurate transactions to benefit businesses and consumers.

Weights and measurements matter

Business leaders have a keen interest in marketplace integrity, not just because of personal ethics. More than three-fifths of the American economy is fueled by business-to-business transactions. Precision counts.

Gerrymandering| It's bad no matter which party does it. Democrats rigged Ohio before GOP came on scene.

In Ohio, the Department of Agriculture is responsible for ensuring marketplace accuracy. Its Division of Weights and Measures trains and certifies inspectors employed by the state’s 88 county auditors, and consumer affairs departments of Cleveland and Columbus city governments.

Each year, inspectors examine thousands of measuring devices: supermarket scales, gas station pumps, livestock and truck scales, laundry wash cycles, taxi meters, credit card readers and more.

Inspectors randomly pull items from store shelves, examine listed prices, then make sure listed prices match what’s charged at checkout lanes.

In 2022, Ohio weights and measures officials resolved nearly 900 business and consumer complaints.

Occasionally, a complaint leads to the discovery of a whopper offense. In 2022, some county auditors learned Dollar General stores were charging customers higher prices than those listed on shelves.

In Franklin County, inspectors found eight of the county’s 10 Dollar General stores charged incorrect prices. Statewide, Dollar General has 980 stores. In Butler County, where the original complaint was filed, nearly nine in 10 examined transactions were inaccurate.

The failed inspections led Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost to file suit against Dollar General. In November 2023, the office won a $1 million settlement with Dollar General. Three-fifths of the money went to food banks and hunger-relief organizations across the state.

Check the price tag: Franklin County auditor says Dollar General fails repeat inspection

Ohioans deserve the same exactitude in the political marketplace.

Too often, however, thumbs are on the scales for all to see. Nowhere is the chicanery more obvious than in the dark art of gerrymandering congressional and state legislative districts.

The map of Ohio’s 15 congressional districts, for example, contains seven districts that clearly violate widely accepted best practices for fair districting.

Those standards dictate that districts should:

• Be equal in population as nearly as possible.

• Be compact (square, rectangular, hexagonal), not irregularly shaped.

• Be contiguous – keeping neighboring communities together.

• Not be drawn to favor or disfavor any political party.

• Not be drawn to augment or dilute voting strength of any language or racial minority group.

• Divide political subdivisions only when essential to meet equal population requirements. When divisions are needed, divide subdivisions from largest to smallest.

No one acting in good faith, trying to abide by these best practices, would draw a map like the current map of Ohio’s congressional districts.

No one acting in good faith would draw a map connecting Franklin and Shelby counties. Or Mercer and Lorain counties. Or Hamilton and Darke counties. Or Auglaize and Ashland counties. These are just some of the examples of extreme gerrymandering of Ohio’s congressional districts.

There is a growing national movement to end gerrymandering, to get thumbs off the scales when drawing districts – a practice that helps drive the extreme partisanship plaguing our nation.

That’s why it’s good a citizens’ group is working to qualify a proposed state constitutional amendment for the Nov. 5 election. If passed, it would create an independent process for drawing Ohio’s congressional and state legislative maps.

The proposal has the potential – at long last – to force Statehouse politicians to give Ohioans the honest, fair districts they deserve.

Mike Curtin is a career newspaperman with 38 years at the Columbus Dispatch followed by four years in the Ohio House (2013-2016).

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Dark art of gerrymandering being used against Ohio voters