No Special Legislative Elections Next Year

By Emily Wagster Pettus/The Associated Press

JACKSON — Three federal judges say they will not order Mississippi to hold a new round of legislative elections in 2013.

The order came Monday in a lawsuit that the state chapter of the NAACP had filed earlier to challenge state House and Senate redistricting.

Current lawmakers were elected in November 2011 in districts that were drawn a decade ago. The 52 senators and 122 House members serve four-year terms.

In September, the U.S. Justice Department approved new legislative district lines that account for population changes revealed by the 2010 Census.

In October, the Mississippi chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People asked a panel of three federal judges to order a new round of elections, using the updated districts, in 2013. That request was denied Monday.