A special judge on Thursday denied a motion to prevent Jefferson City from using a new city ward redistricting map in Tuesday's election.
The Jefferson City Council approved the new redistricting map in November after the 2020 census showed population changes had created too much discrepancy between the city's wards.
Judge William Hickle, of Rolla, ruled Thursday afternoon against three members of the Cole County Republican Central Committee who filed a lawsuit in Cole County Court over the map. The three Cole County circuit judges recused themselves from hearing the case.
Cole County Republican Chairwoman Penny Quigg, Carolyn McDowell and Douglas Thomas were the plaintiffs who filed the suit.
In October, Quigg had told the council she was concerned about a lack of public input before the city drew potential maps, a lack of transparency and a lack of understanding about the larger impact of new ward lines.
Quigg and her fellow committee members also claimed the city should have included the prison populations from the Jefferson City and Algoa correctional centers when drawing ward lines.
"As a result of the City's failure to count and consider inhabitants who are incarcerated, the wards set forth in the map passed by the City Council in November do not contain, as nearly as possible, an equal number of inhabitants as required by the City Charter," the lawsuit read.
The petitioners asked Hickle to find the redistricting map the City Council approved was in violation of the city charter and was void.
Hickle held a video hearing Thursday morning with all the parties involved.
Attorney Samantha Green represented Quigg, McDowell and Thomas in the suit.
Quigg testified the substitute map approved by the City Council moved her residence from Ward 4 to Ward 3. She said this took in her apartment complex and some businesses. Online court records show Quigg lives in the 600 block of Blair Drive.
Quigg currently represents Ward 4 on the Cole County Republican Central Committee. Committee representatives are elected positions. With the move, Quigg testified she will have to vote absentee because she can't vote at her current polling location due to the redistricting moving her to Ward 3.
The map ultimately approved was a substitute that had not been previously discussed by the council.
Under the original map, two sections in the southern part of Ward 4 would have been moved to Ward 5 while one section of Ward 5 moved into Ward 1 and another into Ward 2.
The substitute map -- which the council approved -- moved an area at the southernmost tip of Ward 4 reaching from the city limits to Route C. It also moved a section of Ward 5, from Locust Street to Bald Hill Road, into Ward 1 with a border along East Atchison Street.
Those two sections were in both maps.
The substitute also took an area from the northern section of Ward 4 -- which was considered in other maps -- into Ward 2. The area is south of U.S. 50, from Dix Road to Missouri 179.
Cole County Attorney Jill LaHue, representing County Clerk Steve Korsmeyer who is in charge of running county elections, said there was state statute that prohibited making changes less than eight weeks before an election. She said the law says an issue or candidate cannot be stricken from a ballot or from being added to a ballot.
Green argued if an election were to be allowed on what would later be found to be a void ordinance, the election results would be void. She and her clients asked Hickle to set the wards back to where they were before the council approved the new map in November. Green claimed that would affect far fewer people than if the election were to be voided after the fact.
Korsmeyer testified setting the wards back to where they were before November would be a burden on his office.
"We've already had people cast votes by absentee ballot for several weeks, and the programs for the voting machines at the precincts are in place," Korsmeyer said. "It's not possible to change those, and if we tried to do that and redirect voters to other precincts, there would be mass confusion."
Jefferson City city attorney Ryan Moehlman told Hickle an injunction on such short notice would not only result in voter confusion but could also keep residents away from the polls.
"It's your duty to not disrupt the process of democracy," Moehlman told Hickle. "To do so because of the inconvenience of one person is unjust."
As far as including prison populations in the city population as the plaintiffs claim is required in the city charter, Moehlman said there is case law allowing cities to give special consideration to special populations such as the prisoners at the Jefferson City and Algoa correctional centers.
He said they are not excluded from the population count, but are "treated differently" in the count. He said the combined population of 3,400 to 3,500 prisoners at these facilities are still considered represented by the City Council. Both are in Ward 1.
When counting all residents (including prisoners), as the plaintiffs said is required by the city charter, the actual population totals for each ward after the substitute redistricting would be: Ward 1, 11,193 (7,721 residents and 3,472 prisoners; Ward 2, 8,072; Ward 3, 8,113; Ward 4, 8,355; and Ward 5, 7,697.
Moehlman said the prison population issue had not been a problem for decades. That changed in 2004 when the impact of having those two prison facilities next to each other became an issue when JCCC moved next to Algoa so, "they were unavoidably inseparable."
Hickle asked Moehlman about a scenario if the court were to deny the temporary injunction and the election were held and council members elected. Hickle asked if those council members approved actions and later the plaintiff's claims are found to have merit, what would happen to those actions taken by the council. Mohelhman said those actions would still be considered, by state law, as a valid act by the city taken by legally elected officials.
Although Hickle ruled against the temporary injunction, this is not the end of the lawsuit.
Hickle did order a hearing May 27 on the merits of lawsuit where they'll be looking at the ordinance and ward map going forward and how it might affect future elections.
"We were never trying to stop the election from taking place," Quigg said after learning of the Thursday ruling. "The issue we want to address is the lack of transparency in this process. That is the real issue, and we're get to tell that to the judge in May."