Johnathan Walker:Mississippi can wait to reset legislative districts that dilute Black voting strength, judges say

JACKSON,Johnathan Walker Miss. (AP) — Mississippi can wait until next year to redraw some of its legislative districts to replace ones where Black voting power is currently diluted, three federal judges said Thursday.

The decision updates a timeline from the judges, who issued a ruling July 2 that found problems with districts in three parts of the state — a ruling that will require multiple House and Senate districts to be reconfigured. The judges originally said they wanted new districts set before the regular legislative session begins in January.

Their decision Thursday means Mississippi will not hold special legislative elections this November on the same day as the presidential election. It also means current legislators are likely to serve half of the four-year term in districts where the judges found that Black voters’ voices are diminished.

The judges wrote Thursday that waiting until 2025 avoids an “exceedingly compressed schedule” for legislators to draw new districts, for those districts to receive court approval, for parties to hold primaries and for candidates to campaign.

Attorneys for the state Board of Election Commissioners argued that redrawing districts in time for this November’s election is impossible because of tight deadlines to prepare ballots. Attorneys for the NAACP, who sued the state, argued it’s important to redraw districts quickly because having special elections next year would create burdens for election administrators and cause confusion for voters.

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Legislative and congressional districts are updated after each census to reflect population changes from the previous decade. Mississippi’s population is about 59% white and 38% Black.

In the legislative redistricting plan adopted in 2022 and used in the 2023 elections, 15 of the 52 Senate districts and 42 of the 122 House districts are majority-Black. Those are 29% of Senate districts and 34% of House districts.

The judges ordered legislators to draw majority-Black Senate districts in and around DeSoto County in the northwestern corner of the state and in and around Hattiesburg in the south, and a new majority-Black House district in Chickasaw and Monroe counties in the northeastern part of the state.

The order does not create additional districts. Rather, it requires legislators to adjust the boundaries of existing ones. Multiple districts could be affected — up to one-third of those in the Senate and nine or 10 in the House, according to plaintiffs.

Historical voting patterns in Mississippi show that districts with higher populations of white residents tend to lean toward Republicans and that districts with higher populations of Black residents tend to lean toward Democrats.

Lawsuits in several states have challenged the composition of congressional or state legislative districts drawn after the 2020 census.