KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Missouri residents are filing lawsuits challenging the new congressional map that the state legislature passed the week of Monday, September 8.
One of those lawsuits claims a small portion of people in Kansas City could end up voting in two different congressional districts.
Missouri is split into Voter Tabulation Districts or VTDs, and VTD 811 in the city is part of one of the lawsuits.
Republican Governor Mike Kehoe couldn’t talk to FOX4 on camera Thursday, but Communications Director Gabby Picard sent FOX4 a statement regarding this matter on Wednesday.
“It is likely that the same name was assigned to two different VTDs by the US Census Bureau,” she said.
“Any suggestion that someone could vote in two congressional districts is false.”
FOX4 talked to Chuck Hatfield, a long-time lawyer in the state who previously worked as Democratic Attorney General (AG) Jay Nixon’s Chief of Staff, on Thursday. He’s not an attorney in this lawsuit; five Missouri residents are being represented by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) in this case.
“The legislature created this problem by not being precise in the legislation,” Hatfield said over Zoom on Thursday.
The lawsuit claims the legislature actually assigned VTD 811 to two different congressional districts. Based off the legislation, that appears to be true. VTD 811 appears once in Congressional District 4, currently represented by Republican Mark Alford. VTD 811 also appears once in Congressional District 5, currently represented by Democrat Emanuel Cleaver.
“The Missouri First Map properly placed one VTD 811 in CD-4 and one on CD-5. (See HB 1 page 76, line 391, and page 112, line 818.),” Picard said.
“The entire source of confusion is due to the existence of two entirely different VTDs using the same number.”
Besides the area just northwest of 69th Street and Oak Street, the area southeast of 70th Street and Holmes Boulevard is also VTD 811.
“The legislature could have fixed that by further defining what they mean,” Hatfield said.
“If what they meant is, ‘The voters in this part of VTD 11 are in five, and the voters in that part of VTD 11 are in four,’ they could have said that in the legislation.”
Governor Kehoe’s map has the yellow portion east of Holmes in Congressional District 5, while Congressional District 4 is mostly west of it now. A first court hearing in this case is not scheduled until December 29.
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