A federal court hearing is set for May 20 to determine whether a temporary restraining order should be placed on Tennessee’s new congressional district maps, five days later than the new deadline lawmakers scheduled for candidates to qualify for the ballot.
Democrats challenging the new map filed a request late Monday for a ruling by Friday, contending that a longer wait “risks voter confusion, and potentially compromises the integrity of our state’s elections,” the Tennessee Supreme Court warned about in a separate case in 2022.
The filing also says a ruling for the candidate qualifying deadline will enable candidates who are plaintiffs in the case to “avoid being coerced” into campaigning in newly drawn districts while they are trying to stop the map from taking effect. The plaintiffs requested a hearing be held this Thursday, a day before the new candidate qualifying deadline.
The state countered Tuesday by saying the new map is the “status quo” and that election preparation started before the plaintiffs filed their lawsuit, with the legislature providing more than $3.1 million for county election commissions to make changes in response to the new map and extended qualify deadline.
“Plaintiffs’ request for a temporary injunction would interrupt those preparations at the risk of creating the very sort of confusion and errors that election officials could otherwise avoid if their work was not put on pause. Nor would any such pause be justified,” a filing by the attorney general’s office says.