Over the past year, we’ve seen numerous states across the country engage in mid-decade redistricting, causing confusion for voters on which districts they are represented by and what elections they will be voting in for the upcoming August primary elections. There should be clear communication between municipalities and local election officials with their constituents about these changes.
Both Republican and Democratic led states are engaging in the effort to carve out new seats for their respective parties to varying degrees of success. As things currently stand, 14 new likely-Republican seats were established, with the Democrats drawing enough new friendly districts for a neutral net change in seats. Some efforts to redistrict in states like Kansas, Arkansas and New York were rejected by courts or state legislatures.
In Missouri, a new congressional map was signed into law by Gov. Mike Kehoe in September, then was subsequently upheld unanimously by the Missouri Supreme Court earlier this year. This is despite a political action committee named People Not Politicians submitting over 300,000 petition signatures to Secretary of State Denny Hoskins which call for a referendum on the new map.
Last month, Hoskins sued the PAC as an effort to block a Sunshine Law request to view some of the pages of signatures he withheld from local election authorities citing a separate ongoing lawsuit pertaining to the signatures which has been effectively suspended until all of the signatures have been certified or rejected by Hoskins.
All that to say, the future of the newly redistricted congressional map is stuck in multiple layers of legal limbo, but since it has been signed by Governor Kehoe and declared constitutional by the Missouri Supreme Court, it will be in effect for the upcoming August primary elections.
The map most notably splits up the Kansas City metropolitan area currently nested inside one Democratic district into three Republican districts, but also redraws some district lines here in St. Louis County. Multiple Mid and South County municipalities like Shrewsbury and parts of Webster Groves and Affton, previously represented by the Republican-leaning 2nd District, will be voting in the solidly Democratic 1st District next month.
Many voters are understandably unaware or confused about the status of Missouri’s congressional districts map, especially as a referendum on the newly adopted map is still up in the air and some Republican elected officials like Hoskins and U.S. Senator Eric Schmitt have called for further redrawing of the 1st District following a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision declaring a section of the Voting Rights Act which aimed to protect minority voters in redistricting unconstitutional.
To minimize the confusion, municipalities that have switched districts should be clear in informing voters on which elections they will be participating in by utilizing public notices, social media and other means to disseminate important information to their constituents.
