SCOTUS rulings reshape Alabama primary elections
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Recent rulings by the U.S. Supreme Court are reshaping primary elections in Alabama less than a week before voters head to the polls.
Why it matters: The court's decision Monday to lift an order that blocked Alabama from using its 2023 congressional maps could lead to at least one district flipping from blue to red come November.
Catch up quick: With the injunctions lifted, state bills passed in last week's special session kick in, meaning certain votes in next week's primaries in South Alabama districts will be tossed in favor of new special elections later this year.
Zoom in: The May 19 primary elections will go forward as planned, Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen confirmed Tuesday afternoon, including in the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th districts affected by the reversion to the 2023 maps.
- Primary votes will be counted, tabulated and made public but voided for the purpose of deciding party candidates for those races, he said.
- In congressional districts not affected, like North Alabama's 5th, which includes Huntsville, nothing will change for the planned primary.
What they're saying: Allen urged voters across the state to get out and vote, saying that votes cast on Tuesday will count in every race but congressional primaries in those four districts.
- "Here's what I want every Alabama voter to remember: Go vote," he said. "Go vote on May the 19th."
- Allen said the special election should cost the state around $4.4 million.
The latest: Gov. Kay Ivey on Tuesday officially called special elections in the affected congressional districts for August 11.
- Candidate qualifying for the special elections will begin May 20 and there will be no runoff election, Ivey announced.
- She said the Supreme Court's decision is "plain common sense and enables our values to be best represented in Congress."
Yes, but: The plaintiffs in one of the cases, Milligan v. Allen, have filed a temporary restraining order to keep the current maps in place because voters are already casting ballots, per a release.
- The plaintiffs, which include the ACLU of Alabama and the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, said in a statement Tuesday that the "court's decision is designed to entrench power in the hands of the few at the expense of Black voters."
"This order is also contrary to longstanding precedent that has, until yesterday, forbidden changing the rules too close to an election," the release says. "With voting already underway, the court has created chaos for Alabama election officials and voters."