By the Associated Press and KFDI News:
Democrats have sued Kansas officials over a Republican redistricting law. The lawsuit filed Monday challenges a map that costs the state’s only Democrat in Congress some of the territory in her Kansas City-area district that she carries by wide margins in elections.
A team of attorneys led by prominent Democratic attorney Marc Elias filed the lawsuit in Wyandotte County District Court in the Kansas City area.
The Republican-controlled Legislature overrode Democratic Gov. Laura Kelly’s veto of the plan Wednesday. Democrats argue that the map is unacceptable because it splits Kansas City, Kansas, and decreases the number of minority voters in U.S. Rep. Sharice Davids’ district. Republicans reject those criticisms.
The ACLU of Kansas and the Campaign Legal Center have also filed a lawsuit against Kansas Secretary of State Scott Schwab and the Wyandotte County Election Commissioner, saying the map is a “partisan and racial gerrymander,” dividing the most racially-diverse county in Kansas in half, in an attempt to dilute the voices of minority voters. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of ten plaintiffs who live in Johnson and Wyandotte counties and another plaintiff who lives in Lawrence.
