Appeals court weighs Missouri redistricting map days before election
A federal appeals court on Thursday considered an attempt to resurrect new Missouri congressional districts backed by President Donald Trump. The hearing came just days before the November election and after the U.S. Supreme Court blocked the districts from being used in that election.
A three-judge panel of the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals heard arguments in the long-running dispute over whether the state should use the new Republican-drawn U.S. House districts, the same ones used in the August primary. It was not immediately clear what the impact would be, even if the panel rules in favor of the new map.
The U.S. Supreme Court previously blocked the enforcement of a lower court order favoring the map pending a potential appeal and eventual decision by the high court. Missouri is currently set to run its November election with the same congressional districts it used in 2024 and 2022, following prior decisions by both the Missouri Supreme Court and U.S. Supreme Court.
Local elections officials said in a court filing that they already are printing ballots with those districts. They face a Friday deadline under federal law to mail absentee ballots to overseas citizens and military voters.
State law requires absentee ballots to be available to all other voters by next Tuesday. To try to change districts at this late date would be “practically impossible” and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars, according to the filing by the Missouri Association of County Clerks and Election Authorities.
