Louisiana suspends House primaries after Supreme Court redraws map

Louisiana voters who mailed absentee ballots or voted early for the state’s U.S. House races were told those votes would not count after officials suspended the primaries and moved the contest to allow time for a new congressional map.

The disruption followed the U.S. Supreme Court’s April 29, 2026, decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which struck down Louisiana’s congressional map as an unconstitutional racial gerrymander. In a 6-3 ruling, the court said the state relied too heavily on race in drawing the map and invalidated the district represented by Democrat Cleo Fields, one of Louisiana’s two majority-Black congressional districts.

Gov. Jeff Landry and Secretary of State Nancy Landry then suspended only the U.S. House primaries that had been scheduled for May 16 and a second primary set for June 27. The U.S. Senate primary and other races remained on the ballot. State officials said the House votes already cast would not be counted.

That left election administration scrambling to catch up with a judicial order that arrived after ballots were already in circulation. Early voting for the May election had already begun, absentee ballots had already been mailed, and more than 42,000 absentee ballots had been received for the May 16 election before the suspension, according to state records reported by the Louisiana Secretary of State’s office. Voters in places such as Baton Rouge, New Orleans, Shreveport, Alexandria and Lafayette faced a confusing prospect: House contests still appearing on ballots even as those races were being wiped away.

The governor’s office said the suspension was necessary to avoid holding elections under a map the Supreme Court had already invalidated and to give lawmakers time to draw a new one. The decision, the office said, effectively reinstated a lower court injunction tied to the redistricting fight.

The House primaries were tentatively pushed to July 15, 2026, unless lawmakers chose another date. The delay underscored how quickly redistricting litigation can collide with election deadlines, turning ballots into paperwork for contests that no longer exist and eroding confidence in whether the rules of representation are settled before voters arrive at the polls.

The case could also shape far beyond Louisiana. Legal experts and civil rights advocates have warned that the ruling may affect how Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is applied in future redistricting fights, with consequences for districts and voters across the country.