(NEW YORK) — Skippy Foods announced a voluntary recall of some peanut butter products due to the possibility that a limited number of jars may contain small fragment of stainless steel from a piece of manufacturing equipment, according to a statement released by the Food and Drug Administration.
The recall includes a limited number of dates of Skippy Reduced Fat Creamy Peanut, Skippy Reduced Fat Chunky Peanut Butter Spread and Skippy Creamy Peanut Butter Blended with Plant Protein. The recalled items have use by dates from early May 2023.
The products were sold in 18 states: California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Kansas, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, North Carolina, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma and Wisconsin.
There have been no consumer complaints to date and all retailers that have received the affected product have been notified.
No other sizes, varieties or packages of Skippy brand peanut butter or peanut butter spreads are included in this recall.
“From our family to yours, we want you to know that we take the quality of our products very seriously and apologize to our fans for this situation,” Skippy said in a statement. “Our company is committed to product quality and will continue to invest in our processes to ensure the quality and wholesomeness of our products.”
ABC News’ Sasha Pezenik contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — Nearly two months after the unexplained death of Navy SEAL candidate Kyle Mullen, his mother broke her silence, saying she wants to prevent another family from experiencing the same type of tragedy.
“I wake up every night thinking of him, thinking of how he died probably not breathing,” Regina Mullen said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
The 24-year-old former football player from New Jersey had just completed “hell week,” a grueling 5 1/2 sleepless days of underwater and tactical training designed to push seal candidates to their physical and mental limits. Those who drop out during hell week or “ring the bell” have to wait two years to try again. But Kyle Mullen made it through and texted his mom to let her know of his success.
“Hell Week secured,” he wrote.
“I saw it and I call him, and he says, ‘I did it, Mom.’ And he was so happy,” Regina Mullen said.
“And I heard him outta breath. And I said, “Kyle, are you OK? Are you hurt? Are you in a hospital?” And he just responded, ‘Don’t worry, Mom, I’m good. I love you.’ And he hung up.”
She texted her son again immediately after the call, worried about his condition, but she never reached him or spoke to him again.
As a mother and a nurse, she said she knew something was off when she last talked to her son.
“It was just his breathing. He could — it was difficult for him to form the words with the airflow. It sounded labored. He couldn’t breathe properly.”
The day after Kyle Mullen’s death, Navy officials arrived at Regina Mullen’s house, a dreaded sight for anyone with family in the military.
“I let them in, and I said, ‘He’s not coming home, is he?’ And they said, ‘No ma’am, he’s not coming home.'”
At the time of his death, the Navy released a statement saying Kyle Mullen and another sailor had “reported symptoms” and were taken to the hospital. The other sailor recovered. Kyle Mullen’s death is now under investigation and no official cause has been released.
Regina Mullen believes her son was abandoned when he was most in need.
“I believe…they laid him flat, and he had SIPE, and he most likely couldn’t breathe, and he probably suffocated from his own bodily fluids.
SIPE stands for swimming induced pulmonary edema, fluid buildup in the lungs without choking on water. The majority of cases clear up within 48 hours, but in rare instances, it can be deadly.
Regina Mullen said her son had been treated for SIPE during training in January. Later that month during “hell week,” NCIS investigators told her he was treated with oxygen twice, including on the day he died.
“My son was telling me that it’s discouraged to say, ‘I need to go to the medical.’ He said..they wouldn’t let him go [to] the medical unless you quit and ring the bell,” Regina Mullen said.
She added that when she flew out to California after her son’s death, a commander told her that he had twice been offered medical treatment but refused it.
“At that point, I said, ‘He doesn’t know what day of the week it is. He hasn’t slept in five days. How can he make that determination?'”
The Naval Special Warfare Command told ABC News in a statement that “all candidates receive head-to-toe medical evaluations, including a full set of core vitals, a minimum of once a day and as required throughout the week, as well as upon conclusion of the assessment event.”
Regina Mullen said she hopes no family has to experience what she has gone through and believes was preventable.
“They need better training. They need better monitoring. And this could never, ever happen again,” she said. “No mother should ever have to feel my pain that I have.”
Family attorney Ryan Andrews agreed that her son didn’t have to die.
“He just needed someone to care about his condition when he came off before he went to go lay down and go to sleep,” he said. “That’s it. A medical professional with a stethoscope could’ve prevented this.”
The last Navy SEAL candidate to die during this training was 21-year-old Seaman James Lovelace, who drowned in a pool during his first week in May 2016. After his drowning, the Navy instituted additional safety protocols to the swimming program.
“SEAL training takes you beyond your personal limits,” said Eric Oehlerich, a retired SEAL and ABC News contributor. “It’s designed to push you beyond your perception of what’s possible, breaking glass ceilings of what you’re capable of both mentally and physically.”
Oehlerich said he believes the difficult training for prospective SEALs is carried out within proven medical boundaries and run by highly trained professional instructors, but he acknowledged that there are risks involved in all types of military training.
“From time to time training fatalities do occur. Although tragic, adhering to the training curriculum keeps SEALs alive in combat,” he said. “It’s necessary; it can’t be diluted.”
But Kevin Uniglicht, a family attorney for the Mullen family, took a different view.
“We’ve heard it many times, ‘No one left behind,'” he said. “And I think, unfortunately, you know, Kyle was left behind in this situation.”
(WASHINGTON) — The U.S. State Department announced on Thursday that starting April 11 people applying for U.S. passports will be able to select “X” to mark their gender in a move designed to accommodate nonbinary, intersex and gender non-conforming individuals.
“The Department of State has reached another milestone in our work to better serve all U.S. citizens, regardless of their gender identity,” Secretary of State Anthony Blinken said in a statement released on Thursday, which marks Transgender Day of Visibility.
Blinken first announced the State Department’s intention to make this change in June and said that the option to select “X” for gender will also become available on other documentation in the coming year.
The White House introduced additional changes to travel-related policies, including replacing the Transportation Security Administration’s “gender-based system” with new and more precise technology aimed at reducing pat-downs and unnecessary additional screenings.
The Department of Homeland Security is also in the process of adding “X” gender markers to the systems to facilitate the check-in process for gender non-conforming travelers, the White House said.
“These updates to passports and TSA policy will make it safer for transgender, nonbinary, and intersex members of our community to travel and to walk through everyday life,” said the Gay & Lesbian Alliance Against Defamation known as GLAAD in a statement on Thursday. “Everyone deserves the right to have identity documents that reflect who they are, and to go through airport security without harassment and public humiliation.”
The changes to the travel experience are part of a series of new policies and actions announced by the Biden White House on Thursday that address discrimination against transgender individuals and come as Republican lawmakers push a wave of transgender and LGBTQ legislation across the country that many see as discriminatory.
Most recently, Oklahoma and Arizona became the latest states to impose transgender sports bans. Similar legislation has been introduced in more than 30 states. On Monday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signed the Parental Rights in Education bill into law. The legislation, which is dubbed the “Don’t Say Gay” bill by LGBTQ activists, limits what classrooms can teach about sexual orientation and gender identity. Meanwhile, various states have introduced legislation banning and/or criminalizing gender-affirming care for transgender youth.
The White House condemned anti-LGBTQ legislation and vowed to fight against it at the state level.
“The evidence is clear that these types of bills stigmatize and worsen the well-being and mental health of transgender kids, and they put loving and supportive families across the country at risk of discrimination and harassment,” the White House said. “As the President has said, these bills are government overreach at its worst, they are un-American, and they must stop.”
The White House vowed to provide additional mental health resources and investments in education for LGBTQ youth, their families and their support networks, as well as enhance federal services and benefits for the community.
“To everyone celebrating Transgender Day of Visibility, I want you to know that your President sees you. The First Lady, the Vice President, the Second Gentleman, and my entire Administration see you for who you are — made in the image of God and deserving of dignity, respect, and support,” President Joe Biden said in a statement on Thursday.
“We’re committed to advancing transgender equality in the classroom, on the playing field, at work, in our military, and our housing and healthcare systems – everywhere, simply everywhere,” the statement said.
Jeopardy champion Amy Schneider, the first openly transgender individual to compete on the show, visited the White House for the Transgender Day of Visibility to meet with second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
Schneider, who won a historic 40-game streak, told ABC News she hopes that her visit would advance visibility for the transgender community.
“I think just the same thing that I have been accomplishing, which is being a trans person out there that isn’t monstrous, that isn’t threatening, and is just a normal person like we all are. So the more people like me can be seen, the harder it is to sustain the myths that are driving a lot [of] this hate and fear,” she said.
Many civil rights groups advocating for LGBTQ rights welcomed the changes announced by the White House.
“Today’s actions prove that transgender people have an ally in the White House, and come at a much needed time when transgender people – particularly young people – are under attack in statehouses across the country,” the Human Rights Campaign said in a statement on Thursday.
The National Center for Transgender Equality said in a statement that at a time when “transgender people are being attacked and targeted by state and local politicians,” the White House’s new policies show the community “that the president of the United States has their back.”
ABC News’ Molly Nagle, Conor Finnegan, Robert Zepeda and Luke Barr contributed to this report.
Watchara Phomicinda/The Press-Enterprise via Getty Images
(RIVERSIDE COUNTY, Calif.) — Top officials in California’s Riverside County said this week that they continue to be frustrated in their efforts to find out why social services systems have “harmed” some of the 13 Turpin children who were rescued in 2018 from captivity and torture at the hands of their parents.
The Riverside County Board of Supervisors had vowed to fix the system that broke down for some of the 13 Turpin siblings, but said this week that the process has been bogged down by a tangle of court-mandated confidentiality rules and other state laws that prevent information-sharing.
“We’re trying to do what we can do because we all take this very serious,” county Supervisor Karen Spiegel said Tuesday of the ongoing investigation into revelations first reported in 2021 by ABC News that many of the Turpin children were not given access to many of services and resources they were guaranteed by the system. “There are things that our hands are totally tied on.”
The 13 siblings were rescued in January 2018 from their home in Perris, California, where their parents had subjected them to brutal violence and deprived them of food, sleep, hygiene, education, and health care.
In 2021, Jennifer and Jordan Turpin spoke to ABC News’ Diane Sawyer for the first time about the challenges and hardships they and their siblings have faced in the years since sheriff’s deputies rescued them from a life of home imprisonment.
An ABC News investigation found that some of the Turpin children continue to face challenges and hardships since they were rescued, and some of them had even faced danger again.
In the wake of ABC News’ 20/20 report, Riverside County hired an outside firm to conduct an independent investigation into the county’s care of the Turpin children. The firm, headed by retired federal Judge Stephen Larson, was due to deliver its finding this week on March 31. But on Tuesday his team announced the findings would be delayed by two months as investigators continue to press for access to “vital” court and county records that underpin the Turpin cases.
“These records are vital to ensure that … the final report comprehensively addresses each area of inquiry,” Hillary Potashner, a partner at Larson LLP helping lead the investigation, told the board on Tuesday. “The process to require the records nonetheless remains slow moving.”
In the meantime, Potashner reported to the Board that the team has already reviewed more than 2,600 documents and conducted over 85 interviews — including with two of the Turpin siblings and two staffers with the Riverside County District Attorney’s Office. District Attorney Mike Hestrin went public with his concerns that the county had “failed” the Turpin siblings in the ABC broadcast.
Also interviewed by the outside investigators were 11 members of the Riverside County Public Guardian’s Office, which was responsible for helping the seven oldest Turpin children obtain critical medical, educational and life-skill resources after their parents were arrested.
Still, the supervisors expressed frustration that other aspects of state and federal law have blocked them — as well as other county departments — from sharing information with each other, which has led to what Riverside County Supervisor Kevin Jeffries said was a “disconnected — and I’m being generous — a disconnected level of service to our children.”
“It is the most frustrating experience in my time I’ve had on the Board of Supervisors,” Jeffries said, “to be told you’re responsible as an elected official to make sure all these things run smoothly and you have the right people in place, but you can’t ask any questions about how they do their job, or how effective they are, or the problems they face.”
Last week, a separate Board of Supervisors committee that was formed in the wake of the ABC News report found that “more must be done” to improve care and services to the vulnerable for which they are responsible, including the Turpin siblings.
“Although much work is already in process to continue to improve on our delivery of services to children and adults, leaders recognize that more must be done,” according to a five-page report issued Friday.
Among the changes the supervisors are eyeing, according to the report, is a change to the “legislative hurdle that prevents departments from sharing information.” The report said the committee is pushing to change state law to “allow for the disclosing of information between county adult protective agencies and county child welfare agencies.”
Additionally, the report said the county has created a new “multi-department, multi-disciplinary team” to oversee the care of the 13 Turpin children — one of the first reforms since the probe was enacted.
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department has charged nine anti-abortion protesters with conspiring to obstruct access to a women’s reproductive health facility in Washington, D.C., in October 2020, according to an indictment unsealed Wednesday afternoon.
Prosecutors say Lauren Handy, Jonathan Darnel, Jay Smith, Paula Harlow, Jean Marshall, John Hinshaw, Heather Idoni, William Goodman and Joan Bell all invaded the unnamed health facility on Oct. 22, 2020, and created a blockade to prevent patients from receiving abortions and other reproductive health services.
All have been charged with two counts of engaging in a conspiracy against individuals’ civil rights and clinic access obstruction. If convicted, they could each face a maximum of 11 years in prison. Attorneys for each defendant were not listed on their court docket as of Thursday afternoon.
On Wednesday, the Metropolitan Police Department raided a home — where Handy, a prominent anti-abortion activist who has previously faced state charges for carrying out a similar clinic protest in Michigan, lives, she told WUSA. The charges in Michigan were dropped after a lack of evidence.
Police said they were acting on a tip that biohazardous material was at the house.
The department said officers found five fetuses at the home. “Upon further investigation, MPD located five fetuses inside a residence at the location,” MPD said in a statement. “The fetuses were collected by the DC Office of the Chief Medical Examiner.”
Handy told WUSA she expected the raid to “happen sooner or later.”
According to the indictment, all the individuals traveled to D.C. to participate in the blockade under direction from Handy. The group calls itself Red Rose Rescue; during their demonstrations at clinics, they commonly hand out red roses to women in clinic waiting rooms.
Handy allegedly called the clinic days before their protest, telling them she was a woman named Hazel Jenkins who needed care and made an appointment for the morning of Oct. 22, according to the indictment.
While in the D.C. clinic, prosecutors say the demonstrators blocked two doors using their bodies, furniture, chains and rope while broadcasting their actions live on Facebook.
Darnel began the livestream by saying, “We have people intervening physically with their bodies to prevent women from entering the clinic to murder their children,” the indictment states.
(BOISE, Idaho) — Planned Parenthood filed a lawsuit Wednesday that seeks to reverse Idaho’s new abortion law.
The law bans abortions once cardiac activity in a fetus is detected, which happens at approximately six weeks of pregnancy. Many women are unaware at six weeks that they are pregnant.
The suit was filed in Idaho’s Supreme Court on behalf of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai’i, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky and Dr. Caitlin Gustafson, a health care provider who performs abortions at Planned Parenthood clinics, according to court documents.
The bill, set to go into effect on April 22, was signed by the governor last week, making Idaho the first state to model legislation after Texas’ abortion ban.
“It should be clear to everyone that the Idaho state legislature intentionally abandoned the ordinary rule of law when they passed this six-week abortion ban. Then the governor joined their effort to deny his constituents their constitutional rights when he signed the abortion ban into law — despite his own acknowledgement that it was wrong,” Alexis McGill Johnson, president and CEO of Planned Parenthood Federation of America, said in a press release.
The law would also allow the father, grandparents, siblings, uncles or aunts of the fetus to sue a medical provider that performs the procedure and collect a reward of at least $20,000 for a successful claim filed within four years of an abortion, according to Planned Parenthood.
The law’s “enforcement mechanism and substance are blatantly unconstitutional, so much so that Idaho’s Attorney General’s Office released an opinion to this effect, and the Governor emphasized similar concerns upon signing,” the lawsuit states.
In a letter to Janice McGeachin, the lieutenant governor and president of the state’s senate, Idaho Gov. Brad Little criticized the bill, saying, “I stand in solidarity with all Idahoans who seek to protect the lives of preborn babies.”
He then added, “While I support the pro-life policy in this legislation, I fear the novel civil enforcement mechanism will in short order be proven both unconstitutional and unwise.”
Planned Parenthood is asking the court to rule that the bill is “unlawful and unenforceable” and forbid Idaho courts from implementing civil cases as the bill allows.
Without intervention from the court, the law would go into effect, “wreaking havoc on this State’s constitutional norms and the lives of its citizens,” according to the lawsuit.
“The abortion ban blatantly undermines patients’ right to privacy. It also improperly and illegally delegates law enforcement to private citizens, violating the separation of powers and allowing plaintiffs without injury to sue, in violation of the Idaho Constitution,” Planned Parenthood said.
Added Rebecca Gibron, the interim CEO of Planned Parenthood Great Northwest, Hawai’i, Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky: “This law is a cruel overreach by politicians so intent on controlling the lives of their constituents that they’re willing to compromise our constitutional rights and compromise our health and safety, all in order to ban abortion.”
The lawsuit requests emergency relief by April 21 to prevent the implementation of the abortion ban before it becomes law.
“Unless this abortion ban is stopped, Idahoans will watch in real time as their government strips them of the very rights they were sworn to protect. Everyone deserves to make their own decisions about their bodies, families, and lives — and we’re going to keep fighting to make sure that is a reality,” McGill Johnson said.
Kanakaʻole, who died in 1978, was an internationally acclaimed hula teacher, composer, chanter and performer.
She is credited for playing a vital role in passing down the teachings of hula amid the 1970s Hawaiian Renaissance when cultural traditions, languages and institutions were being revived widely and publicly among Native populations.
Kanakaʻole’s dance school, Hālau o Kekuhi, was internationally acclaimed, for its teachings of the ʻaihaʻa style of hula and chanting.
The ʻaihaʻa is a “low-postured, vigorous, bombastic style of hula that springs from the eruptive volcano personas of Pele and Hiʻiaka,” according to the Edith Kanakaʻole Foundation.
The non-profit is focused on uplifting the cultural teachings, philosophies and traditions that were revived thanks to the Kanakaʻole family.
Hula is a cherished way of telling Hawaiian stories through dance. Because performers are often dressed in lei, grass skirts, or other natural elements-turned-garb, there is a relationship with the earth that often must be cultivated.
According to the Hawaii Tourism Authority, many dancers find ways to give back to nature and the forests that provide them with their dancing materials.
She was also a longtime Hawaiian studies instructor at the University of Hawai’i-Hilo, and not only taught about hula, but also taught about the connection between nature and Hawaiian culture.
In 1996, the Office of Hawaiian Affairs deemed hula schools and their teachers “Living Treasures” to recognize the deep study of Hawaiian genealogy, plants, language, and history required for hula.
Her legacy lives on through the Edith Kanakaʻole Foundation, which is run by Kanakaʻole’s descendants.
“This is an unbelievable honor for our family, for our body of work at the Edith Kanaka‘ole Foundation in carrying on her legacy and her teachings, for our home and for our people,” said Kanaka‘ole’s granddaughter Huihui Kanahele-Mossman. She is also the executive director of the foundation.
“This high recognition reminds us that our work at the foundation continues to be relevant, our research and our practices continue to have meaning and application,” said Kūha‘o‘īmaikalani Zane, Kanaka‘ole’s grandson and president of the board of directors of the foundation.
Kanakaʻole will be featured opposite George Washington on the coin.
She joins several other prominent women in the 2023 release of this project: former First Lady and first chair of the U.N. Commission on Human Rights Eleanor Roosevelt, first African American and Native American woman pilot Bessie Coleman, Mexican American journalist Jovita Idár and Native American Maria Tallchief, America’s first major prima ballerina.
“The range of accomplishments and experiences of these extraordinary women speak to the contributions women have always made in the history of our country,” U.S. Mint Deputy Director Ventris C. Gibson said in a press release.
He continued, “I am proud that the Mint continues to connect America through coins by honoring these pioneering women and their groundbreaking contributions to our society.”
(NEW YORK) — Two people were killed Thursday in the Florida Panhandle when their mobile home was toppled by a suspected tornado, one of nearly 30 that has wreaked havoc across seven South and Midwest states, officials said.
The deaths in Washington County, Florida, were the first fatalities reported from the outbreak of severe weather that began Tuesday night.
The Washington County Sheriff’s Office said two mobile homes were destroyed, and the two people killed were inside one of them, according to ABC affiliate station WMBB in Panama City. Two other people in the second mobile home that was destroyed were injured, the sheriff’s office said.
The deadly episode came after the National Weather Service issued new tornado watch warnings early Thursday from coastal Apalachicola, Florida, to Valdosta, Georgia.
The band of severe weather continued to move east and north, prompting severe weather warnings up the East Coast, including a forecast of potentially damaging winds Thursday evening for New York City, Trenton, N.J., and parts of eastern Pennsylvania.
The severe weather front that swooped in from the Rocky Mountains generated at least 29 tornadoes in seven states on Tuesday night and throughout Wednesday, according to the National Weather Service. Funnel clouds reportedly touched down in Florida, Arkansas, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Alabama and Missouri.
One twister that tore through Springdale, Ark., on Wednesday injured seven people and caused heavy damage to an elementary school. The NWS reported that the Springdale tornado was a powerful EF-3 on the Enhanced Fujita Scale and produced winds of 145 mph.
Besides tornadoes, the severe weather front came with damaging winds that ripped roofs on homes, barns and businesses and uprooted trees.
In Louisiana, powerful winds and low visibility due to blowing debris was blamed for a three-car pile-up on a highway near Iota that caused several minor injuries, according to the Iota Police Department.
At least 10 twisters were reported across Mississippi and high winds toppled large trees outside the Governor’s Mansion in Jackson.
At least three tornadoes touched down in Central Alabama, including one that flipped over a mobile home in Shelby County, triggering a rescue of a person trapped inside, ABC affiliate station WBMA in Birmingham reported.
A twister also touched down in Montevallo, Alabama, Wednesday night, tearing the roof off a dorm at the University of Montevallo and injuring one person, according to the Montevallo Police Department.
“We are thankful that this week was spring break and that very few people were on campus during tonight’s storms,” university officials said in a statement.
ABC News’ Max Golembo, Puri, Alexander, Griffin, Melissa Griffin and Whitney Lloyd contributed to this report.
U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist Seaman Sophia Simons
(NEW YORK) — One crew member is dead and two were rescued after a Navy aircraft crashed off the Virginia coast Wednesday, according to the U.S. Navy.
The E-2D Hawkeye, which was assigned to an East Coast Airborne Command and Control Squadron, crashed at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday in the vicinity of Wallops Island and Chincoteague, Virginia, officials said.
Two crew members were rescued by U.S. Coast Guard search and are being treated for non-life-threatening injuries. The third crew member was found dead on the aircraft, the Navy said.
The Navy said the name of the crew member killed would be released once next of kin are notified.
The cause of the crash is not known at this time.
U.S. Rep. Elaine Luria, D-Va., tweeted that she is monitoring the situation.
“I’m keeping our naval aviators, their families, and our first responders in my thoughts and prayers tonight as rescue and recovery efforts continue,” Luria said.
(WASHINGTON) — Early voting for Ohio’s May 3 primary starts in less than a week, and Election Day is just five weeks away. Yet the state’s congressional and legislative maps are still being litigated, leaving the approaching election in limbo.
As the redistricting process plays out throughout the country, states including Ohio, Missouri and Florida are scrambling as court cases drag on. Other states, including North Carolina, have already made the tough decision to delay their state primaries as a result.
Redistricting takes place every 10 years following a U.S. Census count and involves drawing lines that form congressional and state legislative districts from which public officials are elected. The process plays a significant role in shaping the political landscape for elections and determining which party gains control of Congress. That spells extensive legal battles as partisan players try to secure the advantage.
Federal judges are set to hear arguments Wednesday weighing different options for Ohio’s May 3 primary, which include pushing it back, holding two separate primaries or enacting previously rejected legislative maps.
The state Supreme Court has three times rejected state House and Senate maps drawn by the Ohio Redistricting Commission, saying they unconstitutionally favor Republicans and don’t correspond closely to the preferences of Ohio voters.
“Resolving this self-created chaos thus depends not on the number of hands on the computer mouse but, rather, on the political will to honor the people’s call to end partisan gerrymandering,” the court wrote in its most recent decision.
Though the Ohio Redistricting Commission has drummed up a fourth set of maps, Ohio Secretary of State Frank LaRose said it was impossible the issue would be settled in time for the primaries. Last week, he ordered all boards of elections to remove the state House and Senate races from ballots with the warning they might be added back if federal courts intervene.
“This has been so unpredictable, so I don’t know what to tell you,” Aaron Sellers, a spokesperson for the board of Elections of Franklin County, one of the largest counties in Ohio, told ABC News. “We are preparing for a May 3 primary until we’re told not to.”
Sellers says options such as holding two primaries — one scenario would be to have one election with the old maps and another with the new ones to replace the initial results — could pose logistical challenges for election officials as well as uncertainty for voters about what could happen if the courts reject the maps after voters cast their ballots.
“It would be hard to imagine that once a race took place, that they would rule the maps unconstitutional and have to do it again. But yeah, I suppose that could happen.”
It’s not just legislative state House and Senate maps in question in Ohio. The state Supreme Court is also weighing a new set of congressional maps, including races for the U.S. House of Representatives, after previously striking down a Commission-approved map, also for unfairly favoring Republicans. The court’s decision, however, isn’t expected until weeks after the primary election is scheduled.
“There is no reason to expedite this case. At this juncture, it is abundantly clear that this case will not be litigated prior to the 2022 primary election,” the court argued in its brief laying out the schedule for arguments.
The court timeline means the congressional maps courts previously said were unfair will likely be used in the primaries. The courts advised state lawmakers to push back the primary; however, a Republican-controlled legislature was able to block those efforts.
The refusal to delay the May 3 primary is already causing a host of problems and missed deadlines. Overseas and military ballots were scheduled to be sent in mid-March; however, without finalized districts, LaRose reached an agreement with the federal government to postpone mailing ballots until April.
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis vetoed his state’s newly drawn congressional maps approved by a Republican-controlled legislature Tuesday. DeSantis had long promised to do so and pushed his colleagues to consider his own congressional map, which would give Republicans more power. With a primary in August, the Florida legislature will have to be called back for a special session to draw new districts.
In Missouri, redistricting remains unfinished even though candidacy filing for the 2022 midterm ended Tuesday evening. Part of the delay resulted from infighting among Republicans about how to draw congressional districts that would better benefit the party. Last week, the state Senate approved a congressional map, but it was not brought for a vote in the House because Democrats were split. The general assembly was not able to finalize a congressional map before candidate filing for the 2022 midterms ended Tuesday evening.
Democratic attorneys filed a lawsuit asking the courts to step in and draw new congressional districts for the state.
Maryland and North Carolina, however, aren’t taking chances and have already rescheduled their primaries. Earlier this month, the Court of Appeals of Maryland issued an order pushing back the state’s primaries by three weeks as redistricting battles continue to play out in court. And last December, the North Carolina Supreme Court ordered that the state’s 2022 primaries be delayed two months due to lawsuits challenging Republican-drawn congressional and legislative maps.
