COLUMBUS — The next set of proposed boundaries for new state legislative districts have arrived at the Ohio Supreme Court, which must decide for the fourth time whether the maps are constitutionally sound.

The likelihood of the court approving those maps already appeared uncertain, after the state’s political mapmaking body created them late Monday from a previously rejected set of maps.

The new maps are virtually the same as the ones that were ruled unconstitutional for a third time by the court.

Nothing in the Mahoning Valley was changed except the removal of Hanover Township in Columbiana County from a state House district that includes parts of Mahoning County.

In Mahoning County, the 33rd Senate District would include all of Mahoning, Columbiana and Carroll counties and favor Republicans by about 9.5 percent, according to partisan statewide voting trends. The current district includes all of Mahoning and Columbiana counties.

The 58th House District, which would favor Democrats by less than 1 percent, would include Austintown, Boardman, Canfield, Berlin, Milton, Jackson, Craig Beach, Struthers, Campbell and Lowellville.

The new 59th House District, which would favor Democrats by about 5 percent, would include Youngstown, Coitsville, Ellsworth, Poland, Sebring, New Middletown, North Lima, Smith, Goshen, Green, Beaver and Springfield along with three townships in northwestern Columbiana County. Before the removal of Hanover, the district favored Democrats by about 3 percent.

The 32nd Senate District would include all of Trumbull and Ashtabula counties and a section of Geauga County. The district would be a safe Republican district, favoring that party by more than 10 percent according to voting trends.

It’s the same district as the one that currently exists except it adds more of Geauga.

A new 64th House District, which would favor Democrats by almost 10 percent, includes all of Warren, Girard, Liberty, Niles, Hubbard, Vienna, Howland, McDonald and Weathersfield.

The rest of Trumbull County, along with a large portion of Ashtabula County, would be in a solid Republican 65th House District, favoring that party by about 23 percent.

RELATED DEVELOPMENT

In a related development, new and still-disputed congressional maps are likely to stay in place for the May 3 primary under a schedule for hearing arguments in that case established by the court Tuesday morning. Arguments were scheduled well past the primary.

The GOP-controlled Ohio Redistricting Commission approved those congressional maps March 2 over Democrats’ objections that they unfairly favor Republicans.

TWEAKED MAPS

Late Monday, the redistricting commission voted 4-3 along mostly partisan lines to revive a set of slightly altered legislative maps already rejected by the court earlier this month. In doing so, the commission set aside the efforts of two independent mapmakers paid $450 an hour for the last four days to draw new maps in work viewed step-by-step online.

Four Republicans — Secretary of State Frank LaRose, Senate President Matt Huffman, House Speaker Bob Cupp, and Gov. Mike DeWine — voted in favor of the tweaked maps.

Republican State Auditor Keith Faber joined state Sen. Vernon Sykes, an Akron Democrat, and Rep. Allison Russo, the top House Democrat, in rejecting the maps.

Cupp called the vote “the best that could be done in the time that we were allotted by the Supreme Court.”

Democrats sharply criticized the move. Russo called it “a slap in the face to Ohio voters” that disregarded the Supreme Court’s order to draw constitutional maps.

“There seems to be no end to the arrogance of the super-majority,” Sykes said, referring to Republicans’ majority in the House and Senate.

“Sheer disgust,” Jen Miller, executive director of the Ohio League of Women Voters, said after the vote. She suggested a ballot issue may be needed to create an entirely independent redistricting commission.

LAST-MINUTE

Throughout Monday, the redistricting commission awaited final results from its two independent mapmakers who worked through the weekend on new maps.

Late in the afternoon, the commission reversed course and voted 5-2 to revive maps previously declared unconstitutional by the court and make some adjustments to them in the hopes of fixing problems identified by the court.

A “safety valve” was needed to ensure the commission made the court’s midnight deadline Monday, Huffman said.

“If we’re not going to land the plane, it would be nice to have a parachute,” he said.

The court rejected the previous three sets of Ohio House and Senate maps drawn by the panel, ruling in a 4-3 vote each time that the plans were unconstitutionally gerrymandered to unduly favor Republicans.

Ohioans overwhelmingly supported a 2015 constitutional amendment that mandated the redistricting commission at least attempt to avoid partisan favoritism and to proportionally distribute districts to reflect Ohio’s 54 percent Republican, 46 percent Democratic split.

The maps approved Monday night, created by GOP staffers, come closer to the 54 percent-46 percent target by decreasing the number of competitive districts that favor Democrats, Republicans said.

Republican Attorney General Dave Yost on Tuesday called the amendment creating the commission “an epic failure” and said the state needs to start over.