By Leah Justice

leah.justice@tryondailybulletin.com

North Carolina voters will be heading back to the polls on June 7 because of new congressional districts drawn right before the March 15 primary.

The June 7 primary for Polk County will only contain the Congressional District 10 Republican race.

Every 10 years following the U.S. census, states redraw congressional and legislative districts. The North Carolina districts have been using the 2011 map, both in the 2012 and 2014 election but on Feb. 5 this year a three-judge federal court panel overturned the current maps. A group of voters and advocacy groups sued the state to overturn the maps saying lawmakers had unconstitutionally packed too many black voters in the state’s 1^st and 12^th districts. The court ordered the state to redraw the maps with the new maps completed by state lawmakers on Feb. 19, too close to the March 15 primary. The federal court also has to approve the new map.

The June 7 primary was decided on by legislation because there wasn’t enough time to hold a new congressional candidate filing period, print new ballots and new boundaries and mail absentee ballots prior to the March 15 primary.

Voters in the March 15 primary still saw the congressional races on the ballot, but any votes cast during the March primary will not be counted. The deadline to sign up for congress was from March 16-25.

Polk County will only have the Congressional race on the June 7 primary for the Republican Party. Incumbent Congressman Patrick McHenry is running for the bid with challengers Albert Lee Wiley Jr., Jeff Gregory and Jeffrey Baker.

Polk County is part of the District 10 congressional district, which didn’t change significantly in the state’s proposed maps. Out of the state’s 13 districts, 11 saw major changes with the proposed maps. Some members of Congress will no longer live in their same districts if the new maps are approved.

All of Polk County is still in District 10 so local voters will see no changes in the maps.

The new maps were part of House Bill 2, which was passed 71-32 to move the congressional primary to June 7. The bill also eliminates runoff primaries in the 2016 election.

The winner of the June 7 congressional primary for District 10 will face Andy Millard, a democrat, who lives in Polk County, in the Tuesday, Nov. 8 general election. Millard is running unopposed on the Democratic ticket.

Prior to the redrawing of the map, District 10 included all of Polk, Rutherford, Cleveland, Gaston and Lincoln counties, most of Catawba County and about a third of Buncombe County, including the City of Asheville.