{"id":57907,"date":"2025-11-20T16:22:07","date_gmt":"2025-11-20T16:22:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/57907\/"},"modified":"2025-11-20T16:22:07","modified_gmt":"2025-11-20T16:22:07","slug":"court-order-on-texas-redistricting-forces-scramble-ahead-of-filing-deadline","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/57907\/","title":{"rendered":"Court order on Texas redistricting forces scramble ahead of filing deadline"},"content":{"rendered":"

Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up for Votebeat Texas\u2019 free newsletter here.<\/a><\/p>\n

For months, election officials across Texas have been hustling<\/a> to redraw precinct boundary lines and secure polling locations and workers for the March primary election, all based on new congressional maps Republican state lawmakers drew<\/a> in a rare mid-decade redistricting this summer. <\/p>\n

County party chairs have accepted applications from candidates for precinct chair \u200b\u200b\u2014 the parties\u2019 neighborhood-level representatives \u2014 and, beginning this month, from candidates seeking congressional seats based on the newly drawn districts. <\/p>\n

Now, they\u2019re scrambling to revert to the previous congressional maps after a federal court on Tuesday blocked use of the newly drawn districts<\/a> for next year\u2019s midterms \u2014 right in the middle of the filing period for candidates seeking to run in the March primary. <\/p>\n

How Texas safeguards elections \u2014 and what still poses a threat<\/p>\n

Get the latest reporting on voting technology, misinformation, the push for hand-counting ballots, and more in Votebeat Texas’ free newsletter, delivered twice a month.<\/p>\n

Counties such as Harris and Travis, where the new boundaries changed the shape and makeup of multiple districts to help Republicans, have a lot of work to do under tight deadlines, mindful that the state\u2019s planned appeal of the court\u2019s order<\/a> to the U.S. Supreme Court means things could change again. The stream of changes is also confusing to voters<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Officials with the Texas Secretary of State\u2019s Office told election officials in large jurisdictions that they should currently operate the 2021 congressional maps, as the federal court ordered, Chris Davis, the Travis County voter registration division director, told Votebeat Tuesday. A spokeswoman for the office, Alicia Pierce, said that state officials also told county officials the order will be appealed, and counties must pay attention to what is happening in the courts. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhatever ultimately happens, it\u2019s going to have to be done quickly,\u201d Davis said, noting the looming March primary.<\/p>\n

Cindy Siegel, chair of the Harris County Republican Party, said some candidates may now have to consider withdrawing their application or filing again. With the filing deadline on Dec. 8, she\u2019s worried there won\u2019t be enough time for her office to process the applications of candidates who withdraw and refile for new offices. <\/p>\n

\u201cYou could title your article \u2018HELP!\u2019\u201d she told Votebeat. <\/p>\n

Siegel also said people are wondering whether the primary election might be pushed back because of the court battle over congressional maps. If that happens, it would throw off all the Harris County GOP\u2019s planning, she said, including hiring workers and securing hundreds of polling sites. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s just crazy,\u201d Siegel said. \u201cEveryone right now is just wondering what\u2019s going to happen. No one knows.\u201d<\/p>\n

Texas election administrators have faced redistricting-related election scrambles and delays before.<\/p>\n

In 2012, the Texas primary election was delayed<\/a> until the summer due to months of disagreement and litigation over the state\u2019s congressional maps. The date was changed twice, filing periods for candidates were pushed back, and campaigns were left in limbo without maps.<\/p>\n

Because the current dispute involves a congressional election, only a federal court could delay the election or extend the filing deadlines, said Brandon Rottinghaus, a political science professor at the University of Houston. <\/p>\n

Rottinghaus said the courts have ways to move quickly in cases like this, so a change to the primary election date is unlikely. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey can actually have an outcome pretty quickly that may or may not be the final result, but that will get us through this election,\u201d he said. But meantime, he noted, there\u2019s uncertainty for candidates<\/a> over what the lines will look like and when the primary will happen. <\/p>\n

Natalia Contreras covers election administration and voting access for Votebeat in partnership with the Texas Tribune. She is based in Corpus Christi. Contact Natalia at ncontreras@votebeat.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Votebeat is a nonprofit news organization reporting on voting access and election administration across the U.S. Sign up…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57908,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[31258,27,29,28,3602,19681,31259],"class_list":["post-57907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-election-day-at-parker-elementary-in-houston","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news","tag-texas-tribune","tag-votebeat","tag-voting-machines"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57907\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57908"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}