On February 28, local branches of the NAACP filed lawsuits against twelve Mississippi counties in federal court, seeking a court order to require the counties to move the candidate filing deadline from March 1 to June 1, for this year only, for candidates for county office only. The filing deadline this year for candidates for the state legislature is already June 1, although candidates for statewide office faced a filing deadline of March 1.
The census data from the 2010 census was delivered to Mississippi last month, and the counties will be redrawing their county supervisor district boundaries. The lawsuits argue that it isn’t feasible for candidates to file, before the district boundaries are known. However, it appears at least one of the counties has already redrawn its districts, but is waiting for the U.S. Justice Department to approve those new boundaries. One of the cases, in the northern district, is Winston County NAACP v Winston County Board of Supervisors, 1:11-cv-059. Thanks to Steve Rankin for this news.
If it is feasible for the filing deadlines in 2011 for some office to be on June 1, one wonders why the state legislature didn’t provide that all candidates have a June 1 deadline this year. The primary is in August.