A group of New York voters asked a federal court Monday to reinstate congressional district maps thrown out by state judges last week because they were rigged to favor Democrats.
The suit, filed in Manhattan, argued that even if those maps were unconstitutional, as state appeals judges found, it’s too late to write new ones.
The plaintiffs pointed to a 10-year-old federal court order that set New York’s congressional primary election for the fourth Tuesday in June to ensure military and overseas voters had ample time to receive and return ballots. mail ballots.
Last week, a state judge ordered that the state Congressional and Senate primaries be pushed back to August 23 for new maps to be drawn, from the previously scheduled date of June 28.
The lawsuit said that kind of delay is not allowed under the 2012 court order. So, he said, there is no time for a new mapping process, which has been handed over to a single investigator, and the court must reinstate the original maps produced by the state Legislature.
“New York’s decision to wait several more weeks before adopting a new plan from Congress as the federally mandated June 28 primary rapidly approaches is untenable,” the suit says. “The state has an obligation to redistrict in a timely manner. Since it has not done so, this court must act.”
The plaintiffs were represented by Democratic attorney Marc Elias, who has sued over redistricting maps in other states.
Former Congressman Jon Faso, who has been advising Republican voters on their demands, called the filing the latest in a series of “desperate actions taken by Democrats seeking to preserve their unconstitutional gerrymandering of congressional and legislative districts in the state.” from New York”.
The New York Court of Appeals last week rejected state Senate and Congressional district maps drawn up by the Legislature, joining lower courts in finding that lawmakers had improperly circumvented redistricting procedures enacted by the U.S. referendum. voters in 2014.
The ruling dealt a blow to Democrats’ hopes of seizing up to three seats from Republicans in the US House of Representatives in the 2022 election by redrawing district lines to dilute Republican votes.
Lawyers for the state Board of Elections had been reviewing whether the 2012 court order referenced in the lawsuit would require a federal judge’s approval of any primary date changes.
That order, written when state politicians couldn’t agree on when to hold the congressional primary, did not rule out an August date as long as there was federal court approval.
“This decision in no way precludes New York from reconciling its differences and selecting a different date, so long as the new date is in full compliance” with federal voting law, the order says. “The court fully recognizes that a permanent primary date is best left for New York, but has acted as it must to preserve federally protected voting rights.”
Multiple states hold their primaries for Congress in August.
–
