Florida officials: No elections until May under new map

Florida’s new congressional map can’t be put into effect until May of next year at the earliest, the state’s Republican secretary of state and the Florida Association of Supervisors told a circuit court on Friday.{mosads}Circuit Judge Terry Lewis, who will rule on the map and election timing ordered the elections officials to present him with the plan by Aug. 15. He earlier ruled that Florida’s Legislature had illegally gerrymandered the districts of Reps. Daniel Webster (R) and Corrine Brown (D) to benefit Republicans. The GOP Legislature passed changes to the district lines earlier this week.

The supervisors say, according to the Tampa Bay Times, that the earliest they could feasibly hold new elections for those districts and five others that were tweaked would be May 26 of next year, with March 17 primaries.

Because of the late timing of the decision it’s been unclear whether the new map, which makes minor changes to the old one, could be used for this election as the primary is just over a week away.