Feb. 24 (UPI) -- Utah Republicans were delivered another blow against redistricting by a three-judge federal court panel which denied their bid to overturn the state's new court-ordered map.
The panel said it was too late to redraw the map and deferred to the Purcell Principle, which says that federal courts should not intervene in voting-related cases during the run-up to an election.
"A federal court preliminary injunction is not appropriate because Utah's official primary process is upon us," the judges wrote. The filing period for candidates opens in Utah in two weeks.
The decision means that Democrats may pick up one seat from the four that are now filled with Republicans. The Utah GOP has been trying to redistrict the state to prevent Democrats from winning any seats in the House of Representatives. In August, District Judge Dianna Gibson ruled that the state couldn't use maps that reshaped Salt Lake City, a Democratic stronghold in an otherwise red state.
But Gibson refused a potential GOP map because voters had chosen Proposition 4 in 2018. Proposition 4 created an independent redistricting commission in the state to prevent gerrymandering.
