最新杏吧原创

Republicans, who engineered the new map to give Missouri one additional safe GOP seat during the November mid-term elections, contend the redistricting process cannot be challenged at the ballot box.

Plus, they say, asking voters to vote 鈥測es鈥� or 鈥渘o鈥� on the maps is too complicated because there will be no pictures of the new district boundaries on the ballot question.

鈥淢any voters would not know which counties would go in which districts,鈥� Solicitor General Lou Capozzi told the seven-member panel.

The group People Not Politicians, which has collected enough signatures to qualify for the ballot, says 鈥渁ny act鈥� of the General Assembly is subject to the same kind of citizen votes that challenged previous laws, including previous maps.

If Secretary of State Denny Hoskins were to use the new map in the November election, it would be illegal because the organization collected enough signatures to get it on the ballot, which freezes the new law until voters go to the polls.

鈥淭hey intend to use something that is not in the law,鈥� attorney Chuck Hatfield said.

The state鈥檚 highest court must rule by Sept. 8,聽the deadline for the courts to add items to the ballot.

The tight deadline appeared to frustrate Chief Justice Brent Powell, who suggested Hoskins had聽slow-walked the referendum process聽to force the GOP-friendly map to be used in the August primary election.

Powell on Wednesday did not say when the court would decide the case, but it has acted quickly in past election-related rulings.

Missouri is among 10 states that jumped into a partisan gerrymandering contest last year initially designed to help President Donald Trump secure a Republican majority in the narrowly divided U.S. House in a mid-term election that typically sees the president鈥檚 party lose seats in Congress. Democratic states also joined in to counter any GOP advantages.

Republican Gov. Mike Kehoe, a Trump ally, called the GOP-controlled Legislature into a special session on redistricting last year to approve a map that aims to help Republicans defeat Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver of Kansas City. It reassigns portions of Kansas City to two neighboring districts represented by Republicans and stretches the remainder of Cleaver's 5th Congressional District far eastward into Republican-heavy rural areas.

That triggered a multi-million dollar effort by People Not Politicians to collect more than 300,000 signatures to put the redistricting change on the ballot.

Hoskins, who attended Wednesday鈥檚 arguments, declared the ballot question unconstitutional on Aug. 4, the same day the primary election was held using the new gerrymandered map.

The case is before the high court after Cole County Judge Daniel Green ruled last month that the General Assembly's redrawing of congressional maps has its roots in the federal Constitution and therefore cannot be the subject of a voter referendum in Missouri.

In pre-trial briefs, Capozzi wrote that allowing a referendum would invalidate the results of the Aug. 4 primary election. If a referendum is placed on the ballot, the law it puts before voters is not in effect until approved. That would mean the congressional map used in the primary would not be used in November.聽

Capozzi said that would create chaos for candidates and political parties and force many voters to choose from candidates they did not have a role in selecting in the primary.

Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon, a Democrat, and Polk County Clerk Rachel Lightfoot, a Republican, filed an amicus brief to the Supreme Court last week, saying county clerks could revert voter rolls back to the map they used before the gerrymandered one, which had been in effect since 2022, before the November election.

The court also heard a separate case involving the collection of signatures by People Not Politicians asking the court to rule on whether signatures can be collected after the General Assembly acts on a law, but before the governor signs the act into law.

Powell asked if the case is now moot since the organization did collect enough signatures, but Hatfield said the court could send a message to state officials that would put guardrails on the process and avoid future court battles.

Hatfield said he believes the Republican-led General Assembly may be tempted to rewrite the congressional boundaries again in a bid to gerrymander the 1st Congressional District Democratic stronghold in 最新杏吧原创 into a Republican-leaning district.

鈥淭hey are going to do it again next year,鈥� he predicted.