Watch CBS News

Ruling Expected on Pennsylvania GOP Request To Delay Primary Election

By Pat Loeb

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- A federal judge in Philadelphia was expected to rule today on whether Pennsylvania's primary should be held as scheduled on April 24th.

The judge heard arguments this morning that the election should be halted.  Republican legislators are asking the judge to stop the election, in light of a ruling by the state Supreme Court throwing out a proposed new legislative map (see related story) because its oddly shaped districts violated the state constitution's mandate for compact districts.

Attorneys argued that an election based on the old map, created in 2001, violates the one-man, one-vote rule.
But Clifford Levine, an attorney for Democratic legislators who intervened in the case, says stopping the election altogether means one-man, no vote.

"There would be no primary," he tells KYW Newsradio.  "There would be no way to nominate candidates.  That's about as undemocratic as any option available."

Levine says it would take anywhere from three to six months to finalize a new legislative map, so even if the state reschedules the primary, as Republicans have proposed, it would come too late to influence the party nomination process, which is the purpose of the primary.

View CBS News In
CBS News App Open
Chrome Safari Continue
Be the first to know
Get browser notifications for breaking news, live events, and exclusive reporting.