GREENSBORO, N.C. — The North Carolina primary elections have been pushed back two months.
The state supreme court issued the order Wednesday. The primaries were supposed to be March 8, but now they won’t take place until May 17. It's all because of redistricting maps.
Political Science expert Jason Husser said our state has grown a lot over the last 10 years, which means the concentration of people has changed as well.
Every 10 years, district maps are redrawn to match population levels and can sometimes be used for political gain, Husser said.
“The issue at hand, right now, with these primaries is that some folks are saying the maps are illegally drawn and unfairly drawn to favor one group over another," he explained.
This decision to push the election date also halts candidate filing.
"The reason for that is that you need to often live in a district in which you’re going to represent and if the maps change because of these lawsuits, you could have people who were planning to run in certain districts that are no longer eligible even to run unless they change their residence,” Husser said.
The North Carolina court system made this call, saying lower courts need time to consider the handful of lawsuits against the new district maps - lawsuits that claim those maps are illegally gerrymandered.
Greensboro city councilman Justin Outling filed as a candidate for mayor just before the decision came down. He told WFMY that he was surprised by the move but understands it.
"Certainly, everyone in our community deserves for electoral maps to be drawn in a fair way," Outling said.
Greensboro Mayor Nancy Vaughn released a statement on the change: “I am disappointed that the elections will be further delayed but I respect the court's decision. My continued focus will be on leading our city forward.”
Republican lawmakers, who led the map-drawing process, say the new lines are legal. It's not clear when courts will rule on those lawsuits.