Filing Period For Texas Candidates May Shorten

SAN ANTONIO (AP) - A three-judge panel is unlikely to approve temporary maps for Texas' revamped political districts before candidates are scheduled to start filing for next year's primary elections, the federal judges said Monday.

Consequently, the opening of the filing period may be delayed and shortened for candidates in all state and congressional races by about two weeks, they said.

The view was made clear during a federal court hearing in San Antonio. The judges said they were unlikely to approve interim congressional maps by Nov. 12, when filing for office is scheduled to begin statewide, the San Antonio Express-News reported.

State elections director Ann McGeehan told the judges that state and county election administrators needed time to prepare for the primaries. U.S. District Judge Orlando Garcia asked if it would be better to shorten the filing period for congressional and state House and state Senate races only, or for all races statewide.

"I think it's preferable to just move everybody," she said.

Lawyers and representatives of Texas' Republican and Democratic parties appealed to the judges to announce what the filing period would be. The judges said they might do so by the end of this week.

The hearing involved a combination of several lawsuits filed by minority and Democratic groups.

A final resolution is stalled while the U.S. Department of Justice challenges maps proposed by the state in a case pending before a separate three-judge panel in Washington, D.C. The Justice Department has said it found sufficient evidence that congressional and Texas House district boundaries proposed by the state were "adopted with discriminatory purpose."

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