MARIES COUNTY — Maries County residents will vote Nov. 3 for candidates in Missouri’s 3rd Congressional District, following a Sept. 25 stay from the U.S. Supreme Court.

This decision comes after multiple court rulings on whether Missourians should use the 2022 or the 2025 congressional maps. Because the 2022 maps are in place, Maries County voters will choose from different candidates than during the Aug. 4 primary election. Voters will decide whether to use the 2025 maps in future elections in Proposition A.

Other states, including Texas and California, have also changed their district lines to be more favorable toward either the Democratic or Republican parties.

Military ballots have already been mailed, using the 2022 maps, and absentee voting started Sept. 22. County Clerk Rhonda Rodgers said that Maries County didn’t have any military ballots. She also said that if someone voted early, and the districts changed; then the ballot wouldn’t have counted for the congressional race. Votes in other races would still count.

If the district lines had changed, voters could not have cast another ballot.

Voters in Maries County will choose among Republican incumbent Bob Onder, Democrat Bethany Mann and Libertarian Jim Higgins to represent the 3rd District.

If the 2025 maps had been used, voters would have chosen among Republican Rick Brattin, Democrat incumbent Emanuel Cleaver II and Libertarian Randall (Randy) Langkraehr to represent the 5th District. Maries County residents selected these candidates in the primary.

The state legislature is not affected by this dispute.

The 8th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in Onder v. Missouri on Sept. 21 that because the voters used the new 2025 maps for the Aug. 4 primary, it was unconstitutional to use the old 2022 maps. The opinion said that would violate Article 1, Section 2 of the U.S. Constitution. This is because one in four Missourians could not to choose the candidates on the November ballot.

The Court of Appeals also suspended the order for seven days to allow for the Supreme Court to review the case.

However, the Supreme Court ruled that there is not a precedent that Article 1, Section 2 requires the primary and general elections to use the same map. The court also said that it has repeatedly warned lower federal courts to not alter state election rules shortly before an election. This is called the Purcell principle.

The court also said that this principle applies even more because “the election is not merely upcoming; it has already started.”

The Supreme Court previously on Sept. 10 issued a stay on a Sept. 8 order from the U.S. Eastern District of Missouri. As a result, Secretary of State Denny Hoskins wrote in a statement that Missouri would use the 2022 congressional maps.

In addition to affecting absentee voting, Rodgers also said that it would have cost the entire state money because every county would have to reprint ballots and reprogram the voting machines. She finds the situation “disheartening” because she is trying to meet deadlines required by law so that citizens can vote on time.

“Those deadlines don’t seem to apply to them,” she said.

Rodgers’ message to voters is the county is operating like any other election and that her staff will help those who want to vote early.

“It’s business as usual, and when they tell us something different, then we’ll just figure it out,” she said.

Absentee ballots can be requested until Oct. 21, the same day that no-excuse early voting begins at the Maries County Courthouse.