Bill Mahoney reports for Politico that it is a Congressional election year, and in New York, the district lines are still not drawn. In December, a state Court of Appeals threw out the current lines, and gave the state’s Independent Redistricting Commission a Feb. 28 deadline to produce new draft congressional districts. Candidates begin collecting petitions to run for the still-unknown districts on Feb. 27. But local boards of elections have said they would prefer the districts be made public by around Feb. 1. The commission still needs to come up with the new district lines, and the legislature has to vote to accept them. But the commissioners who are deciding the new district lines have not scheduled a public meeting since a planning one was held a few days after Christmas. Common Cause New York executive director Susan Lerner said, “Conducting business behind closed doors is unacceptable.... Open your doors to the people. The people who live in congressional districts deserve a say in who will represent them.” The judges ruled in their December decision that the commission is not required to “conduct any solicitation of public commentary beyond what it has done previously.” It is possible that the Congressional primary is delayed, as in 2022, when the court ordered new district lines to be drawn, the primaries moved from June to August. Read more about this story in Politico.