A U.S. Supreme Court order<\/a> Thursday seems to have resolved it for November’s general election, with the state going back to the map that was in place for 2022 and 2024.<\/p>\nThat means Moody’s neighborhood, which was briefly in the Republican-dominated 4th District, is back in a compact 5th District centered on Kansas City, one of the two currently represented by Democrats. The other, Trump-backed map split Kansas City into multiple districts stretching far outside the city and into areas with more conservative voters.<\/p>\n
It all may sound confusing. But for Moody, a 70-year-old retired chemist, the main feeling is something else: frustration.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt’s plain that it’s completely ridiculous,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
The Trump-backed map left just two of the state’s eight congressional districts unchanged.<\/p>\n
It left just one \u2014 the St. Louis-based 1st District \u2014 likely to be dominated by Democrats.<\/p>\n
The 5th, also currently represented by a Democrat, had the biggest change, with only about 2 in 5 voters in the old district included in the new one.<\/p>\n
Among the new additions: residents of the state capital, Jefferson City, about 130 miles (210 kilometers) east of Kansas City. <\/p>\n
Carolyn McDowell, a longtime Republican activist from there, said she does not like that Republican lawmakers attempted to gerrymander districts in the middle of the decade. She learned Thursday that her home \u2014 temporarily shifted from Republican U.S. Rep. Bob Onder’s district to that of Democrat Cleaver \u2014 would again be back in Onder’s district, which stretches eastward to suburban St. Louis. <\/p>\n
\u201cThis is confusing for people who are running for office and for the voters,\u201d McDowell said.<\/p>\n
But McDowell is glad the Supreme Court blocked the use of the new districts for November.<\/p>\n
The new map \u201cwas unconstitutional when they even thought of it,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n
Kay Park, president of the League of Women Voters of Missouri, said her organization did not get many calls from voters about the changing districts. But several people she did talk to felt like the redrawn map did not represent them as well as the one they had before \u2014 and which has now returned.<\/p>\n
Ashley Sadowski has tried to follow the saga closely. She even tuned in to a state Supreme Court hearing Thursday at which judges considered whether to hold Republican Secretary of State Denny Hoskins in contempt for not following an order to use the 2022 version of the districts. <\/p>\n
But Sadowski has still found it nearly impossible to understand the back and forth and the switching maps.<\/p>\n
The new maps moved Sadowski\u2019s Kansas City home into the 4th District. Sadowski, who calls herself a progressive independent, studied the Democratic candidates carefully for the primary because she had lived in the 5th District for so long.<\/p>\n
Now she is back in the 5th for the general election.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s just astounding to me how we all showed up in August to vote on a map that wasn\u2019t legal,\u201d Sadowski said.<\/p>\n
Leslie French\u2019s home in Platte City, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) northwest of Kansas City, remains in the Republican-dominated 6th district no matter which map gets used in November. But French, also a Democrat, can\u2019t get over what has been going on.<\/p>\n
To switch districts after they were drawn following the 2020 census is unfair and seems to be something a country not serious about a democracy would do, French said. <\/p>\n
She said she was surprised \u2014 and thankful \u2014 that U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh saw through what she called a blatant power grab and restored the earlier map.<\/p>\n
French has been to rallies over gerrymandering and redistricting and sometimes wears a Lady Liberty costume.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt\u2019s embarrassing,\u201d French said. \u201cWhen we travel to foreign countries, I\u2019m tempted to tell people I am Canadian.\u201d<\/p>\n
___<\/p>\n
Collins reported from Columbia, South Carolina, and Mulvihill from Haddonfield, New Jersey. Associated Press reporter David A. Lieb contributed from Jefferson City, Missouri.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
\n
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