Updated

Updated · Fox News · Sep 13

Missouri Supreme Court Blocks GOP Map, Restoring 2022 Boundaries for 1 Million November Voters

Updated

Updated · Fox News · Sep 13

Missouri Supreme Court Blocks GOP Map, Restoring 2022 Boundaries for 1 Million November Voters

Q: What happens to the validity of August primary results when the general election uses completely different district boundaries?

The August primary results generally remain valid unless a court or state officials order a new primary, and in Missouri no court has done that. What changes is not the validity of the votes already cast in August, but how useful those results are for the November ballot. Candidates who won their primaries were certified as nominees, but some of them may now run in district boundaries that are materially different from the ones voters saw in August. That means some November voters could be assigned to a district where they did not participate in choosing that party’s nominee, while others who helped pick a nominee may no longer live in that district for the general election. That is unusual, but not automatically unlawful. Courts sometimes allow nominees chosen under one map to remain on the ballot under another if time is short and election deadlines are near. In other situations, states have redone primaries after map changes; Alabama is a recent example. In Missouri, however, the reporting and court record indicate that no judge has ordered a rerun, and the existing nominees appear set to stand unless a separate legal challenge succeeds. So the practical answer is this: the August primary is not erased, but its results are being carried into a general election conducted under different lines, creating a mismatch between who nominated the candidates and who will vote on them in November.

3 articles · Updated · Fox News · Sep 13

Missouri will use its 2022 congressional map in November after the state Supreme Court blocked the newer GOP-backed boundaries, overturning the lines used in the August primary.
More than 1 million voters — nearly one-fourth of the electorate by an AP estimate — could now cast general-election ballots in different districts from the ones where they voted in the primary.
The ruling undercuts a Republican push to make Democratic Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s Kansas City-area seat more competitive and improve the GOP’s chances of winning 7 of Missouri’s 8 House seats.
The court issued only a brief order with no explanation, capping more than a year of litigation and leaving candidates and election officials to quickly adjust weeks before November.