‘Just pick’: Missouri clerks dispute claim that switching congressional maps is impossible 

An order directing Secretary of State Denny Hoskins to use congressional district maps drawn in 2022 for the November election would not pose the technical obstacle described by the state and a Cole County judge, two county clerks told the Missouri Supreme Court in a filing last week.

Boone County Clerk Brianna Lennon, a Democrat, and Polk County Clerk Rachel Lightfoot, a Republican, filed an amicus brief in the case over a referendum on redistricting. Though they have no position on what the court should do with the case, Lennon said they want to make sure the court knows Cole County Circuit Judge Daniel Green was wrong when he wrote in his ruling that using the maps in effect for the 2022 and 2024 elections was a “remedy that is impossible to implement.”

For election officials, Lennon said, the question is simply which set of congressional district assignments to use.

“You just pick which map you want us to use and we are ready for you,” Lennon said.

The question of which map will be used Nov. 3 — along with whether Missourians will vote in a referendum on the map drawn in 2025 — will be answered after the court on Wednesday hears oral arguments in a case seeking to overturn Green’s decision. 

In the state’s arguments filed in advance of the hearing, Lou Capozzi, Missouri’s solicitor general, echoes Green’s conclusion that the election process is too far advanced to change back to the older maps.

“Missouri courts and federal courts refuse to change election rules in the middle of an ongoing election cycle,” Capozzi wrote.

Anything that changes the lines now “would be catastrophically disruptive and technically ‘impossible’ — as Missouri’s election administration system will be locked and cannot be altered,” Capozzi wrote.

That is not true, Lennon wrote in the brief.

The Missouri Centralized Voter Registration system, maintained by Hoskins’ office, links every address in the state to both the gerrymandered map drawn by lawmakers in 2025 and used for the primary and the map used for 2022 and 2024, Lennon said.

“If the current situation was that local election authorities were being asked to implement an entirely new map today, for example, it would be too late to redefine or edit a new district because MCVR does ‘lock’ that ability,” she wrote. “However, that is not the case here.”

New voters who register in advance of the November election will be assigned to both districts as well, Lennon said.

“The addresses themselves are what are tied to two districts,” Lennon said. “So, if you register to vote at an address within Boone County, it is tied to both the new district and the old district.”