On Monday, a federal three-judge panel issued a decision rejecting a request by the State of Alabama to pause implementation of their September 4th ruling striking down a partisan redistricting plan passed by the Alabama Legislature in July while the state appeals the Court’s decision. Following that legal setback, the state has filed an emergency appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court, asking for the Court to freeze the three-judge panel’s ruling by October 1.
The three-judge panel has appointed a special master to draw new redistricting maps for the state of Alabama after the Alabama Legislature failed twice to produce a map that the Court believes complies with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The special master will present the three-judge panel with potential maps dividing the state of Alabama into seven congressional districts. The Court will then select the map that they think is best.
The Alabama Democratic Party told Alabama Today that qualifying for Congress and other offices opens up for the Alabama Democratic Party on September 29 – before the district boundaries and racial compositions are even known. Republican qualifying does not begin until October 16. Candidate qualifying for both parties ends on November 10.
The three-judge panel told the state that the state’s appeal will likely fail, which is why they did not grant the pause in their ruling.
“The Secretary has lost three times already, and one of those losses occurred on appeal,” the three federal judges wrote in their ruling. “We have twice enjoined a plan that includes only one majority-Black or Black-opportunity district on the grounds that it likely dilutes the votes of Black Alabamians in violation of Section Two of the Voting Rights Act.”
The Court has ruled that since the state is 27 percent Black, two of the seven congressional districts should be majority Black. Currently, Alabama has six majority White congressional districts and just one, the Seventh, majority Black district.
At this time, we believe that all seven of Alabama’s congressional incumbents will run for another term. That could change depending on what the redrawn districts look like.
The Constitution only requires that candidates for Congress be residents of the state. It does not require that they live in the congressional district.
The uncertainty of the district lines most harms Independent and minor candidates. They have to get ballot access signatures from registered voters in their districts. Without knowing what any of the districts look like, those costly petition drives would be working purely on speculation and guesswork. Any voter’s signature that ultimately was not in the district would not count and would be rejected by the Secretary of State’s office.
The state has argued that drawing two majority Black districts in the state of Alabama will result in districts that are not suitably compact and would result in the dividing communities of interest like the Alabama Gulf Coast or the Wiregrass region.
The major party primaries will be on March 5.
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