The US supreme court again rejected a push backed by Donald Trump to overhaul Missouri’s congressional maps in an effort to hand Republicans an edge in November’s midterm elections.
Its latest ruling, after days of confusion, comes less than two months before the pivotal midterm elections in which control of the narrowly divided US House of Representatives could be determined by a handful of seats.
Following conflicting decisions that spanned four courts, Wednesday’s ruling appeared to set the stage for the state to use its old electoral maps this year.
The end result does not completely end confusion for Missouri’s voters, who cast ballots in primary elections using the new map, butwill vote in November on the older map.
“The state, the election apparatus, had no business going forward with the primaries under that bill, under that circumstance,” said David F Walbert, a storied voting rights attorney in Georgia, who has argued voting rights cases before the US supreme court. “The problem that we’re dealing with today is 100% the result of the state machinery that created this.”