Alison Patton
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
The Secretary of State’s Office backs the claim that the “Missouri First” map is in effect, but the Boone County clerk said Friday she can’t change district lines for voters until after the April election.
“Right now in the voter registration system that’s maintained by the Secretary of State’s Office, there’s not actually an option for us to assign people to the new congressional districts,” Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon said. “So, we can’t do anything.”
The county clerk’s office oversees elections, including determining in which district a voter resides. But Missouri’s congressional district lines are at the center of a legal battle, Lennon said. Voters are still in the 2022 districts at least until after the April election.
Meanwhile, filing for the seats begins on Tuesday.
The Republican-dominated General Assembly last year approved a new congressional map that would effectively eliminate a safely Democratic seat in Kansas City. The map was immediately challenged in court.
Congressional maps are usually drawn every 10 years after the census, but Republicans and Democrats alike have pushed mid-decade redistricting to gain an advantage in the 2026 midterms and 2028 general elections.
A referendum backed by the group People Not Politicians is trying to get the 2025 map on the November ballot, but there’s also debate on whether the referendum freezes the map’s implementation until after the November election.
Lennon said there is a narrow window between the end of the April election and the beginning of the August election for county clerks to adjust congressional, which is late April and early May. Once an election is opened, clerks can’t adjust anything.
“That’s really going to be the absolute latest that we would be able to update district lines in order to impact the 2026 midterms,” Lennon said.
Lennon said her office has received a lot of questions from people wondering what district they’re in, and created an interactive map to outline the two different districts.
The heavy black line shows the boundary between the new Fifth and Third House districts, while the green and blue show the current Third and Fourth House districts. (Boone County Clerk’s Office)
The lower half of the county is in and will stay in U.S. House District 3, which is represented by Bob Onder (R-Augusta). The upper half of the county changes based on the map.
In the 2022 map, the county is roughly split along Interstate 70 and is in Republican Rep. Mark Alford’s District 4. The 2025 map splits the county above I-70, putting much of the northern, rural part of the county in District 5, which would stretch into Kansas City.
Rep. Alford said he intends to file for candidacy in the 2025 version of District 4, which no longer includes Boone County.
“I’m equally as comfortable in the urban core of Kansas City as I am by the lake in Camden County or in a corn field in Hickory County. That, in addition to the fact that I am the only declared candidate with the resources to run a competitive race, makes me uniquely qualified to represent the new Fourth District,” Alford told ABC 17 News in an email.
Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D-Kansas City) has already filed federally to rerun for District 5, which, under the 2025 map, covers the upper half of Boone County.
The 2025 map is likely to cut Cleaver out of the U.S. House and flip his seat to Republican. In an email to ABC 17 News, Cleaver said the race is about connecting with voters across the new district.
“The race will be in the 5th District regardless of final court decisions on the constitutionality of the mid-decade redrawing of the Congressional maps, absent a current Census or a determination that the citizens lead referendum pauses the proposed new map until there is a statewide vote,” Cleaver wrote.
Cleaver testified in front of a Missouri Senate committee during the special session on redistricting, asking them not to pass the map as it now stands.
Former Boone County Clerk Taylor Burks (R) also announced his intent to run in District 5.
“I think that mid-Missourians need a strong voice and an opportunity to send a congressman to Washington, D.C. that shares our values,” Burks told ABC 17 News on Friday. “I don’t think that Emanuel Cleaver would be that voice for us here in mid-Missouri.”
Burks is from Boone County and could be in a different district if courts knock down the 2025 map. He said that’s a concern for another time.
“At some future date, things may change. But for right now, the people who are in charge of establishing maps, running elections under these maps, they have said the Missouri First Map is here to stay,” Burks said.
A spokesperson for the Secretary of State said that if the map is changed and candidates need to switch districts, they have until May 19 to do so. There’s also potential for a judge to allow for changes.
Click here to follow the original article.
