Missouri issues overseas ballots as appeals court mulls changing state’s congressional map yet again

As a federal appeals court mulls whether a GOP-gerrymandered map drafted in 2025 should be used in Missouri for November, hundreds of ballots have already been sent out to military and overseas voters based on a congressional map that’s been in place since 2002.

Friday was the federal deadline for ballots to be sent out to military and overseas voters. Those voters have the option to return their ballots immediately via an online portal, based on a 2022 map that courts have said is the legal version in place for the current election. More than 300,000 Missouri voters signed a petition last year to put the new GOP gerrymandered map to a statewide referendum vote.

However, a decision from the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals allowing the gerrymandered map would void overseas ballots already cast for candidates based on the 2022 map in some counties. Several Republican congressional candidates behind the lawsuit are pressing the appeals court to uphold the gerrymander anyway.*

A ruling in favor of the gerrymander would most certainly be immediately appealed to the U.S. Supreme Court (SCOTUS), injecting additional chaos and confusion for Missouri voters whose congressional maps have flipped between the 2022 and 2025 versions multiple times since the Aug. 3 primary. They were changed several times in September alone. 

SCOTUS has already ruled twice on the matter to leave the 2022 map in place for November. The Missouri Supreme Court has also ordered state officials to abide by the 2022 map, and held Secretary of State Denny Hoskins in contempt for trying to lead local election officials to use the gerrymandered version. 

The current appeal before the 8th Circuit Court was filed by the aforementioned Republican congressional candidates, not the state officials. However, Hoskins and other Republican state officials filed a brief in support of the candidates’ lawsuit in hopes of reverting to the 2025 maps in future elections. 

The Friday deadline for mailing out overseas ballots has already passed. But the lawyer for the GOP candidates said during the appeals court hearing on Thursday that the deadline could be modified with a court waiver. 

If allowed, this would mean that local election officials would have to print new ballots that reflect the gerrymandered districts (if the court rules in the GOP candidates’ favor) to distribute to overseas voters who haven’t already returned the ballots that were issued electronically on Friday. 

Meanwhile, absentee ballots for in-state voters will be mailed out on Tuesday. If the appeals court rules after Tuesday for the map to revert to the 2025 gerrymandered version, several counties will have to reprint those ballots and send them out to voters – many of whom will already have ballots that will no longer be valid.

Such confusion could discourage voters from sending back ballots at all, flummoxed over which ballot is the correct one or over concerns their vote won’t be counted due to the chaotic process. 

Even if an appeals court ruling in favor of the gerrymandered map comes before Tuesday, one county director told the Missouri Independent that there is “no chance” his county will be able to get the corrected ballots ready in time for the Tuesday deadline. 

For overseas voters who’ve immediately cast their ballots via the portal or for absentee ballot voters in Missouri who receive and return their ballots after Tuesday, their votes could be lost if the appeals court rules later that the gerrymandered map is in effect. 

St. Charles County Elections Director Kurt Bahr told the Missouri independent: “If somebody gets a ballot quickly, responds and votes quickly, once it’s received by the elections office, that vote is cast. At that point they don’t have an opportunity to vote the correct ballot.”

According to Shawn Kieffer, the GOP director of Kansas City’s election board, roughly 40% of registered voters in that city alone would be moved to a different congressional district under the gerrymandered map. 

That map was drafted at President Donald Trump’s behest in 2025 to reduce the number of the state’s Democratic U.S. House seats. The gerrymander targeted the district that includes Kansas City, which includes a large Black voter population and has been represented in Congress by Rep. Emanuel Cleaver (D), an African American, for the last 20 years. 

“What is harmful to the black and brown residents of Kansas City is equally harmful, or also harmful, to the cattle farmers of northern Missouri,” said Richard von Glahn, executive director of People Not Politicians, which helped organize the statewide referendum vote, on a call with reporters last week.