Judge nixes challenge to redistricting maps in Pa.

Associated Press

PHILADELPHIA

Pennsylvania’s 2001 legislative district maps should be used in this year’s elections since the state Supreme Court rejected a new redistricting plan, a federal judge ruled Wednesday.

Senior U.S. District Judge R. Barclay Surrick said the election cycle is too far along to allow a revised plan to be developed and approved. Delaying the April 24 primary could deprive Pennsylvanians of the right to vote in the presidential primary and send delegates to national conventions, he said.

Surrick fears that forcing state Secretary Carol Aichele to delay elections would only complicate matters.

“With election deadlines quickly approaching, and no existing alternative reapportionment plan, [she] needs certainty as to how to proceed. There is no reasonable alternative at this point,” Surrick wrote.

The ruling is a setback for the Legislature’s Republican majority leaders, Latino groups and others. They sought to block the use of the 2001 maps, citing population shifts over the past decade.

“The federal court’s opinion focuses on timing issues, not the merits of the argument,” House Majority Leader Mike Turzai and Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi responded in a joint statement. “We are reviewing our legal and legislative options.”

In the meantime, they said, they plan to issue revised maps Wednesday, and vote on them at the Legislative Reapportionment Commission’s meeting Feb. 22.