Redistricting Pennsylvania

The first electoral aftershocks from legislative redistricting earlier this year are about to be felt. Pennsylvania voters are going to the polls on Tuesday to pick primary candidates for Congress, 203 state House seats and 25 Senate districts.

A federal lawsuit by Republicans challenging Pennsylvania’s new congressional districts is over, three weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court declined to intervene and stop the plan.

The proposals directly oppose the wishes of advocates who have for years pushed to remove elected officials from the process and give the power to average Pennsylvanians.

For the past ten days, hundreds of candidates for Pennsylvania’s state House and Senate have been scrambling to collect the signatures they need for the nomination petitions that will get them on the ballot for this year’s midterm elections. Typically, they get three weeks.

Lawmakers and courts differed on how — and whether — to define and uphold “partisan fairness” when reviewing electoral maps.

A scramble to collect enough signatures over a week and a half to make it onto the primary ballot is underway, kicking off what is certain to be a year of political change in the Pennsylvania Legislature.

Legal experts and voting rights advocates warn the "independent state legislature doctrine" could radically alter election administration across the country.

New maps of General Assembly districts that reflect the past decade’s population changes in Pennsylvania are in now place as the state Supreme Court has turned down all legal challenges.

All seven Pennsylvania Supreme Court justices are explaining their 4-3 vote last month to pick a new map of the state’s congressional districts.

The Supreme Court has turned away efforts from Republicans in North Carolina and Pennsylvania to block state court-ordered congressional districting plans more favorable to Democrats.