Mississippi election officials say redrawing legislative districts in time for this November’s election is impossible because of tight deadlines to prepare ballots. Attorneys for the all-Republican state Board of Election Commissioners filed arguments Wednesday.
FILE - Mississippi state Sens. Rod Hickman, D-Macon, left, Michael McLendon, R-Hernando, second from left, Albert Butler, D-Port Gibson, and David Jordan, D-Greenwood, review an alternate Senate redistricting map at the Mississippi Capitol in Jackson, Miss., March 29, 2022. Three federal judges ruled Tuesday, July 2, 2024, that Mississippi legislators must redraw some state House and Senate districts because the districts adopted in 2022 dilute Black voting power.
Mississippi held state House and Senate elections in 2023. Redrawing some districts would create the need for special elections to fill seats for the rest of the four-year term.said Republican Gov. Tate Reeves would need to call legislators into special session and new districts would need to be adopted by Aug. 2 so other deadlines could be met for special elections to be held the same day as this November’s general election for federal offices and state judicial seats.
Legislative and congressional districts are updated after each census to reflect population changes from the previous decade. Mississippi’s population is about 59% white and 38% Black. Jarvis Dortch, a former state lawmaker who is now executive director of the ACLU of Mississippi, said the federal judges were correct in ordering revisions to the House and Senate maps.
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