Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

States miss key milestones as redistricting process lags

States miss key milestones as redistricting process lags

Maryland legislators, seen working on redistricting in December 2021, are under pressure to quickly approve a new congressional map.

Michael Robinson Chavez/The Washington Post via Getty Images

Update: Both chambers of the Republican-controlled Louisiana Legislature voted Wednesday to override Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards' veto of the congressional map. And the Maryland General Assembly, run by Democrats, approved a new map Wednesday, sending it to Republican Gov. Larry Hogan for his signature.

Ninety days into 2022, nearly a dozen states have yet to complete their congressional or legislative redistricting work. In three states, candidate filing deadlines have already passed without district maps being finalized.

Missouri has yet to complete its congressional map, while Montana and Ohio are still working on their state legislative maps. But candidates seeking office in those states already filed paperwork to get on primary ballots, meaning the districts they intend to represent are not necessarily defined.

Candidates in eight other states have a bit more time, with filing deadlines coming up in the next four months.


Missouri’s filing deadline was Tuesday. State law only requires candidates to live in Missouri and not the district they are seeking to represent. So while candidates could look at proposed maps and predict which district would be the most appropriate, there remains the possibility they could represent someplace that does not include their residence.

Lawmakers have been working on the congressional map for months, and the state House had approved a version that would likely retain the current partisan makeup (six seats held by Republicans, two by Democrats). But after the state Senate pushed through a version that might shift another district to the GOP, House members said they needed time to review the changes.

Sign up for The Fulcrum newsletter

The primary is scheduled for Aug. 2.

Ohio, which required legislative candidates to file by Feb. 2, tweaked a rule to make it easier to submit the required ballot petition given the uncertainty around district lines. Ohio’s legislative maps remain incomplete after the state Supreme Court rejected a third version of maps drawn by a partisan commission and approved by the Republican-controlled Legislature.

The state had intended to hold all of its primaries on May 3, but that will no longer happen. Election officials will proceed with the congressional primaries as planned, but a date has not yet been set for legislative primaries.

Further muddying the waters, Ohio’s congressional map has been challenged by Democrats but the state Supreme Court will not hear the case until after the May 3 primary.

"There is no reason to expedite this case. At this juncture, it is abundantly clear that this case will not be litigated prior to the 2022 primary election," wrote three Republican justices. according to the Columbus Dispatch.

In Montana, candidates filed their paperwork by March 14, for a June 7 primary even though the legislative maps have not been approved yet. The secretary of state’s office directed potential candidates to use the current maps to determine district boundaries when determining where to run.

Made with Flourish

The next deadline is just a few weeks away. People seeking office in Maryland must file by April 15, but congressional candidates are still waiting to see the final district lines.

On March 25, the state Supreme Court tossed out the approved congressional map, calling it an “extreme partisan gerrymander,” setting a deadline of March 30 for a new map. The rejected map would have solidified Democrats’ hold on seven of eight congressional districts and perhaps even have made the one GOP-leaning district vulnerable to a takeover.

The state Senate quickly approved a new map that would likely shift the balance so Republicans can win two districts. The state House has not yet voted on the new proposal.

The remaining states have more time to complete redistricting, but Florida and Wisconsin may need all the time they can get.

On Tuesday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed a pair of congressional maps approved by his fellow Republicans in the Legislature after lawmakers sent him two options of their own design, rather than the one he recommended.

All three versions would likely increase the GOP majority in the delegation, but DeSantis’ map could also lead to two Black Democrats losing their seats.

The Legislature will return for a special session in April to try again. Candidate paperwork is due June 17.

Candidates in Wisconsin face an even tighter deadline. People seeking office must file by June 1, but the U.S. Supreme Court threw out the state legislative maps, saying the state Supreme Court did not do enough work to ensure the new maps complied with the Voting Rights Act.

The state court had approved a map crafted by Democratic Gov. Tony Evers but favorable to Republicans. An analysis by the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel predicted the GOP would maintain margins similar to what it currently enjoys.

Louisiana (July 22 candidate filing deadline) and New Hampshire (June 10) also need to complete their congressional maps.

Kansas (June 1 filing deadline), New Hampshire (June 10) and Vermont (May 26) are still working on their state legislative maps.

Mississippi has not yet completed its legislative map, but it is not holding an election for the Legislature this year.

Read More

"Voter Here" sign outside of a polling location.

"Voter Here" sign outside of a polling location.

Getty Images, Grace Cary

Stopping the Descent Toward Banana Republic Elections

President Trump’s election-related executive order begins by pointing out practices in Canada, Sweden, Brazil, and elsewhere that outperform the U.S. But it is Trump’s order itself that really demonstrates how far we’ve fallen behind. In none of the countries mentioned, or any other major democracy in the world, would the head of government change election rules by decree, as Trump has tried to do.

Trump is the leader of a political party that will fight for control of Congress in 2026, an election sure to be close, and important to his presidency. The leader of one side in such a competition has no business unilaterally changing its rules—that’s why executive decrees changing elections only happen in tinpot dictatorships, not democracies.

Keep ReadingShow less
"Vote" pin.
Getty Images, William Whitehurst

Most Americans’ Votes Don’t Matter in Deciding Elections

New research from the Unite America Institute confirms a stark reality: Most ballots cast in American elections don’t matter in deciding the outcome. In 2024, just 14% of eligible voters cast a meaningful vote that actually influenced the outcome of a U.S. House race. For state house races, on average across all 50 states, just 13% cast meaningful votes.

“Too many Americans have no real say in their democracy,” said Unite America Executive Director Nick Troiano. “Every voter deserves a ballot that not only counts, but that truly matters. We should demand better than ‘elections in name only.’”

Keep ReadingShow less
Why America’s Elections Will Never Be the Same After Trump
text
Photo by Dan Dennis on Unsplash

Why America’s Elections Will Never Be the Same After Trump

Donald Trump wasted no time when he returned to the White House. Within hours, he signed over 200 executive orders, rapidly dismantling years of policy and consolidating control with the stroke of a pen. But the frenzy of reversals was only the surface. Beneath it lies a deeper, more troubling transformation: presidential elections have become all-or-nothing battles, where the victor rewrites the rules of government and the loser’s agenda is annihilated.

And it’s not just the orders. Trump’s second term has unleashed sweeping deportations, the purging of federal agencies, and a direct assault on the professional civil service. With the revival of Schedule F, regulatory rollbacks, and the targeting of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion programs, the federal bureaucracy is being rigged to serve partisan ideology. Backing him is a GOP-led Congress, too cowardly—or too complicit—to assert its constitutional authority.

Keep ReadingShow less
One Lesson from the Elections: Looking At Universal Voting

A roll of "voted" stickers.

Pexels, Element5 Digital

One Lesson from the Elections: Looking At Universal Voting

The analysis and parsing of learned lessons from the 2024 elections will continue for a long time. What did the campaigns do right and wrong? What policies will emerge from the new arrangements of power? What do the parties need to do for the future?

An equally important question is what lessons are there for our democratic structures and processes. One positive lesson is that voting itself was almost universally smooth and effective; we should applaud the election officials who made that happen. But, many elements of the 2024 elections are deeply challenging, from the increasingly outsized role of billionaires in the process to the onslaught of misinformation and disinformation.

Keep ReadingShow less