Missouri judge finds GOP redistricting measure misleading

JEFFERSON CITY, MO (AP)

A Missouri judge has ruled that the state's Republican-led legislature illegally tried to mislead voters into repealing anti-gerrymandering reforms they adopted two years ago.

Cole County Circuit Judge Pat Joyce on Monday struck down the summary the legislature had written for a November ballot measure that would undo key parts of the 2018 initiative. She instead replaced it with a summary suggested by a group opposed to this year's measure.

The 2018 measure made Missouri the first state to adopt a system in which a nonpartisan demographer would draw state House and Senate districts based on a mathematical formula designed to achieve "partisan fairness" and "competitiveness."

The state's Republican attorney general can appeal the ruling.