A federal judge ordered special elections after earlier ordering the state to redraw the electoral map used to select justices, concluding the current configuration dilutes the power of Black voters.

MISSISSIPPI (WCBI) – Christmas is just days away, and so are some important dates for next year’s Congressional Elections. This Friday, December 26, is the qualifying deadline for candidates for the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate. Absentee ballots will be available January 26, and potential voters have until February 9 to register.

Over the past decade or so, the VRA has been battered by a series of hits from the increasingly conservative high court. In 2013, the justices knocked out a key pillar of the law by eliminating “pre-clearance” requirements for advance approval of voting changes, including redistricting, in most or all of nine states and a smattering of localities.