Two Youngstown pastors and a community activist have filed a class-action lawsuit on behalf of black voters asking a federal judge to prevent the certification of votes being cast for primary election candidates in the Sixth District Congressional races.

The suit was filed last week in the U.S. District Court of Northern Ohio by New Bethel Baptist Church Senior Pastor Kenneth Simon, Holy Trinity Missionary Baptist Church lead pastor Lewis Macklin II, and long-time community activist Helen Youngblood.

The suit was filed against members of the Ohio Redistricting Commission, alleging that the plan issued on March 2^nd for Ohio congressional districts disregards racial factors in violation of the federal Voting Rights Act, as well as the First, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Amendments.

In addition to seeking a halt to the certification of votes cast in the Sixth District congressional race, the lawsuit asks the court to appoint a Special Master to craft congressional districts that comply with state law and the federal Voting Rights Act.

The lawsuit was filed the same week that a federal three-judge panel in Ohio’s Southern District, citing largely technical issues, denied a request by Simon, Macklin, and Youngblood to temporarily block certification of 2022 U.S. House races.

In a divided ruling last week, the Ohio Supreme Court for a fourth time declared the redistricting commission's latest maps for Statehouse districts were yet another case of a partisan gerrymander.

The court set a May 6 deadline for completing the next plan.