Columbus voters have approved a sweeping overhaul of how City Council is elected, backing two charter amendments on Nov. 3 that will bring district-only council elections to the city for the first time in more than a century and eventually expand council from nine members to 13. According to unofficial results reported by The Columbus Dispatch, Issue 8 passed with about 82 percent support and Issue 9 passed with about 60 percent support.
Issue 8, placed on the ballot by the grassroots coalition Our City, Our Say, converts the city’s nine council districts from residential districts into true voting districts, so only the voters who live in a district elect its council member. Issue 9, referred to voters by City Council itself, makes that same change and adds four at-large seats elected citywide. Tallies compiled from the Franklin, Delaware and Fairfield county boards of elections put Issue 8 at 237,179 yes votes to 52,910 no, and Issue 9 at 162,273 yes to 121,267 no, with all 562 precincts reporting.
Because both measures passed, Issue 9 will effectively take precedence, The Columbus Dispatch reported. Its four at-large seats phase in over two cycles — two elected in 2027 and seated in 2028, two more elected in 2029 and seated in 2030, when the full 13-member council first sits. Issue 9 also calls for the district map, drawn as a residential map, to be redrawn by a citizen-led commission ahead of the 2029 elections.
The change ends a hybrid system used for just two election cycles. Approved by voters in 2018, it grew council from seven members to nine in 2023 and required each member to live in a designated district — but every city voter still voted in all nine races. Columbus has been the most populous U.S. city with no district-only council representation, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
The push reignited after the 2025 election, when Jesse Vogel lost the District 7 race to Tiara Ross despite winning about 63 percent of the vote inside the district itself, The Columbus Dispatch reported. Vogel helped organize Our City, Our Say, which collected more than 23,000 signatures for Issue 8. Council President Pro Tempore Rob Dorans, who championed Issue 9, said in an election-night statement reported by The Columbus Dispatch that the community should never be afraid of evolving its systems of governance.
Our City, Our Say celebrated in its own election-night statement, also reported by The Columbus Dispatch, calling the result the start of a new era of democracy in Columbus. The debate was not always quiet: some Black activists warned Issue 8 alone could threaten Black representation because the current map has no majority-Black district, and a single donor financed a six-figure ad blitz backing Issue 8 in the final weeks, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
For residents, the change starts in 2027: a voter’s council ballot will center on their own district’s race, plus the new citywide seats as they phase in. What happens next is certification — the county boards must certify the unofficial results by Nov. 24 — then the 2027 elections, with Districts 2, 5, 6, 8 and 9 on the ballot under the new rules.