People are seen in a mirror as they check-in and fill out ballots during early voting at the Garners Ferry Adult Activity Center on May 26, 2026 in Hopkins, South Carolina. As voters cast early ballots across the state, the South Carolina Senate cont …
Republicans suffered setbacks in their efforts to redraw congressional maps in two southern states where they hoped to pick up additional seats this fall. While a GOP-devised map for Alabama was blocked by a federal judge, state senators in South Carolina quashed an effort to put the primary that just started on hold so they could draw new congressional lines.
Too late for South Carolina
With early in-person primary voting beginning Tuesday, some South Carolina lawmakers argued it was too late to schedule a new election date with different congressional boundaries and toss out the ballots being cast now.
"South Carolina citizens are going to the polls today. And neither my conscience or common sense is going to let me stop an election that is already underway," Republican state Sen. Richard Cash said.
Federal court blocks Alabama
A three-judge federal panel blocked Alabama’s newly-drawn map that is expected to help Republicans pick up an extra seat in what is expected to be a hotly contested race for control of the House this fall.
The judges found the GOP plan intentionally discriminated on the basis of race by only having one Black-majority district. They ruled the state must continue to use an earlier, court-imposed map that has two districts with a significant proportion of Black residents. Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall indicated the state would appeal the decision to the U.S. Supreme Court.
Big picture view:
The redistricting efforts in Alabama and South Carolina are just the latest frontlines in the battle by Republicans and Democrats to pick up seats in Congress by redrawing congressional lines in various states.
New GOP-created maps have been enacted in Florida, Missouri, North Carolina, Ohio, and Tennessee, while California voters changed their maps in a way favorable to Democrats. In Utah, a court imposed a map that helped Democrats, while the party suffered a setback when the state Supreme Court rejected a voter-approved plan that would have helped it pick up additional seats.
The Source: Information for this article was taken from The Associated Press. This story was reported from Orlando.