Hoskins seeks ‘clarity’ as election officials warn it’s too late to switch congressional maps

COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)

Missouri’s county clerks and election directors told a federal appeals court on Tuesday that it is too late to switch congressional maps for the Nov. 3 general election.

Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon and the Missouri Association of County Clerks and Election Authorities filed an amicus brief in the 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals supporting a bid to reverse a Sept. 8 temporary restraining order. That order, issued by U.S. District Judge Stephen R. Clark in St. Louis, blocked the state from using the 2022 congressional map.

The MACCEA represents election officials in all 116 local jurisdictions. Those officials, not the secretary of state, design, print, and mail ballots.

Lennon said the practical impact of the legal battle is why the group wanted to weigh in.

“I think it's important in the election cases, the practical effects of a court case are important,” Lennon told ABC 17 News. “And so given how late this is in the election schedule, we just wanted to make sure that the court was aware of what it was that we were doing on the ground. Local election officials are the ones running the elections, and we wanted to share that context.”

Last year, Gov. Mike Kehoe signed HB 1 into law, creating new congressional district lines that would carve up Democratic U.S. Rep. Emanuel Cleaver’s 5th District and give Republicans a potential 7-1 advantage in Missouri’s congressional delegation.

MACCEA argues changing the congressional district lines this late in the election cycle would create significant financial and practical burdens.

On Sept. 3, the Missouri Supreme Court ruled the state Constitution allows voters to weigh in on a congressional redistricting map. Secretary of State Denny Hoskins had initially rejected the referendum petition in August, preventing the proposed map from appearing on the November ballot.

The Missouri Supreme Court also ruled the map approved by lawmakers in HB 1 cannot be used for the November election. Instead, the 2022 congressional district map will remain in effect unless voters approve the new map in November.

Following that ruling, election officials received conflicting instructions from Hoskins on Sept. 8. The first email told them to use the 2022 map when preparing ballots, while a second email, sent just over an hour later, directed them to use the HB 1 map. Hoskins was determined to have been in contempt at the time.

Most election officials delayed finalizing their ballots while the legal fight continued. Two days later, Hoskins directed them to use the 2022 map, citing the Missouri Supreme Court’s ruling. Election officials then began producing ballots under the 2022 map. Court documents say most jurisdictions had ballots in production by Tuesday.

Lennon said the delays have put election officials behind their normal schedule.

“It has been tricky to not be able to print ballots until this week, and we are a little bit behind on our usual schedule for that,” Lennon said. “But I am hopeful, given that we knew that this was kind of coming, that we can make up for lost time.”

The brief argues another late map change could jeopardize the state’s ability to meet the Sept. 18 deadline for sending ballots to military and overseas voters, as well as the Sept. 22 start of regular absentee voting. Federal law requires those ballots to be sent 45 days before an election.

Lennon said election officials now have little room for another change.

“We now have this very short timeline when it comes to printing the ballots to have them in hand, because we want to make sure that they're ready to go,” Lennon said. “And we also don't want to have to end up in a situation where we have voters that cast absentee ballots and then the next week we have to change the absentee ballots, redo all of the work that we've done and let voters know that the ballot has changed because we've seen that happen in other states.”

MACCEA estimates that reprinting ballots would cost hundreds of thousands of dollars in printing and staff time, ranging from several hundred dollars in small counties to $15,000-$30,000 in larger jurisdictions.

Lennon said counties would have to absorb some of those unexpected expenses.

“The state does have some appropriation for it. They pay a proportional cost of it, but it's the counties that have to pay for everything,” Lennon told ABC 17 News. “And so if we have these unanticipated costs that we didn't think about when we were doing our original budgets way back in January, those are things that we have to find from the county budget.”

The group argues those costs would amount to an unfunded mandate because the Legislature did not appropriate money for the changes when it passed HB 1.

The brief asks the 8th Circuit to lift the restraining order so clerks can finish ballots under the map already in use.

People Not Politicians and Richard von Glahn also filed a brief Tuesday asking the 8th Circuit to vacate the Sept. 8 temporary restraining order. They argue the order may soon become irrelevant because it expires Sept. 22, the same day regular absentee voting begins.

They also argue the case should have been heard by a three-judge panel and that changing congressional maps this close to an election would disrupt the state’s election process.

Oral arguments are scheduled for Thursday morning.

Hoskins filed his own brief late Tuesday. While acknowledging the 2022 map will likely appear on the ballot, he urged the court to rule that a referendum cannot suspend a congressional map passed by the Legislature and that switching maps after the primary elections violates the U.S. Constitution.

“More than anything, Missourians need clarity about the map that they will vote under in the November General Election. Because the Supreme Court has already granted a stay forcing Missouri to use the 2022 congressional map for the 2026 General Election, the Secretary is complying with that ruling,” Hoskins and the state argued in the brief.

Hoskins’ office said the Missouri Supreme Court’s Sept. 3 order requiring use of the 2022 map for the Nov. 3 general election, after the Aug. 4 primary was held under the HB 1 map, leaves hundreds of thousands of voters facing a different set of candidates than they nominated. The state claims that arrangement violates Article I, Section 2 and the Equal Protection Clause.

The brief also argued the Elections Clause bars a petition signed by about 3.3% of registered voters from suspending a map enacted by the General Assembly and signed by the governor. Hoskins said such a process would let a political minority freeze maps after every redistricting.

“This case may involve the first attempt in American history to suspend a congressional map based on a referendum petition signed by a small minority of voters. But it certainly will not be the last. The Secretary anticipates that small fractions of Missouri’s electorate will attempt to suspend duly-enacted congressional redistricting plans every time the State redistricts in the future,” the brief states.

Hoskins said he is following the Missouri Supreme Court’s ruling and using the 2022 lines, but he asked the 8th Circuit to decide the constitutional questions anyway because similar referendum campaigns could arise after future redistricting efforts.