COLUMBUS — While some ballot issue campaigns are faltering, the effort to overhaul how Ohio draws its legislative and congressional districts is on track to submit more than 386,000 voter signatures by the July 4 deadline, said Ann Henkener of the League of Women Voters of Ohio.

“It is going well. We are meeting our targets. We are optimistic that we are going to be there,” Henkener said.

The League and other groups formed Voters First, which wants to put an independent citizens’ commission in charge of drawing legislative and congressional districts. Currently, the five-member Apportionment Board draws Ohio’s 99 House and 33 Senate districts and the General Assembly draws the 16 congressional districts following the U.S. Census every 10 years.

Under the current system, the political party in power draws the districts to its own advantage and creates “safe” seats for its own members.

The Ohio Campaign for Accountable Redistricting reported that this time around the Republicans drew maps to cement their advantage in the Statehouse and to set up only three of 16 congressional districts as truly competitive.

Voters First is backing a plan to create a 12-member Ohio Independent Redistricting Commission, which would be charged with drawing new districts, beginning with the 2014 election.

Politicians and lobbyists would be ineligible to serve on the commission.

In other news, a group seeking a ban on dog auctions ran out of money and gave up its petition drive earlier this month.

And backers of a constitutional amendment to give rights to fertilized human eggs reported that they have only collected 20,000 of the required 386,000 signatures, according to the Associated Press.