Federal court blocks Alabama’s congressional redistricting plan; Mississippi enacts new congressional map
On Jan. 24, a unanimous three-judge federal court panel blocked Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill (R) from holding the state’s 2022 congressional elections using the redistricting plan the state adopted on Nov. 4, 2021. On the same day, Mississippi Gov. Tate Reeves (R) signed the state’s congressional redistricting plan.
Previewing the Feb. 15 recall election of three San Francisco, Calif., school board members
Recall elections against three of the seven members of the San Francisco Unified School District Board of Education in California are on the ballot on Feb. 15. Recall supporters said they were frustrated that schools in the district remained closed for nearly a year in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer to retire; Court accepts three cases for argument
Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer will retire at the end of the 2022 term this October. Breyer’s retirement will be President Joe Biden’s (D) first opportunity to nominate a member to the court. In other SCOTUS-related news, the court accepted three cases for argument during its October 2022-2023 term on Jan. 24.
Rematches in the 2021 general elections
When the same candidates run against each other in consecutive election cycles, we call that an election rematch. In the 2021 general elections, we covered 10 rematches—five state legislative races and five local races. The 10 rematches represented about 1.2% of all 830 general election races in Ballotpedia’s 2021 coverage scope.