BATON ROUGE, La. - Thousands of Louisiana voters have submitted early ballots for congressional candidates who may end up in the wrong districts. Alabama's primaries are just one week away, yet the state might need to redo voting for U.S. House contests. A freshly drawn congressional map in Tennessee has disrupted races that were already months in progress.

The Republican drive to redraw congressional districts in multiple Southern states - following a U.S. Supreme Court ruling that undermined the Voting Rights Act - is bewildering voters and generating major logistical challenges for local election officials. These shifts are occurring right in the middle of primary season.

This disorderly disruption to a pivotal election cycle that could decide control of the U.S. House represents the newest consequence of a fiercely partisan redistricting fight sparked by President Donald Trump last year to safeguard the GOP's narrow majority.

June's Supreme Court ruling, which significantly weakened the Voting Rights Act, compelled Louisiana to revisit a 2024 map featuring two majority-minority congressional districts that sent Black representatives to Congress. The Republican-dominated Legislature now has the opportunity to eliminate one or both in a state where about 30% of residents are Black.

That decision has also spurred Republicans in Alabama, Mississippi, South Carolina, and Tennessee to eye the removal of four Democratic-held districts - three occupied by Black lawmakers. Florida's updated map aims to strip Democrats of four out of their eight seats among 28 total.

In Louisiana, 66-year-old New Orleans resident Sallie Davis cast an early ballot last week. It let her support Democratic U.S. Rep. Troy Carter, but a polling site sign had his race scratched out with a pen. Confused and upset - particularly after a poll worker advised her to follow the sign's indication - she fears her whole ballot might get tossed.

"I had to trust a scrap of paper with an X over the candidate I chose," she said, her voice cracking as she described the incident. "I feel disenfranchised. My vote probably won't count. This seems illegal."

Louisiana's primary is Saturday, with early voting starting May 2 - two days after the Republican governor issued an emergency order halting congressional primaries to allow lawmakers time for a new map.

Republican Secretary of State Nancy Landry's office reported nearly 179,000 primary ballots cast by Friday, including around 53,000 mail absentee votes. Those included U.S. House races, but such votes will not tally.

In Alabama, South Carolina, and Tennessee, Republicans defend new maps by arguing they better match the states' conservative leanings. Alabama legislators approved a bill Friday permitting a congressional primary redo.

Alabama's May 19 primary proceeds with old districts for House races, but those results could be voided if courts greenlight new boundaries.

Mississippi ran its primaries in March, but a federal court mandated redrawing state Supreme Court districts, and Trump urges GOP changes to the state's four congressional seats. A special legislative session starts May 20, with House renovations shifting meetings to the Old State Capitol - site of past Jim Crow laws curbing Black votes.

"Today's voter suppression thrives on administrative mistakes and disorder, which we'll witness across these states," said Amir Badat, a Jackson, Mississippi, voting rights lawyer and advocate.

Tennessee led with a post-Supreme Court map, though Trump's redistricting campaign began in Texas last year. Democrats responded in California and attempted it in Virginia but hit court blocks.

Before Tennessee's GOP Legislature approved its new map last week, the state elections coordinator warned counties via memo: reprogram machines, retrain staff, possibly shift precincts and polling locations.

Tennessee congressional primaries stay on Aug. 6, with candidates qualifying by Friday. Prior qualifiers get leeway if running in a new district with equivalent numbers.

In South Carolina, lawmakers may delay all June 9 primaries to August or just congressional ones. Mail voting needs an excuse, but over 6,800 ballots were issued by Friday - 260 returned - per the Elections Commission.

A standalone congressional primary would cost $3 million with a tight prep timeline, commission executive director Conway Belangia told legislators Friday.

"It'll be tough, but doable," he noted.

Michael McClanahan, head of the NAACP's Louisiana State Conference, fields calls amid "total confusion," with voters asking, "Is there an election?"

"Folks say, 'I won't vote - the governor canceled it,'" he shared. "But he only paused one part."

Alabama Senate Democratic leader Bobby Singleton gets queries from puzzled election heads.

"These are the election chiefs - and they don't know what's next," he said.

Voting rights advocates recall 2022 Nashville chaos, where GOP split the capital across three districts to flip a Democratic seat. A state review found over 3,000 voters in wrong districts and 430 ballots in incorrect races that November.

"Election boards can't keep pace with this rushed schedule," said Matia Powell, Civic TN's executive director, on a Friday call with Southern voting activists.

Anneshia Hardy of Alabama Values, aiding voting and civil rights efforts, warns eroding trust if rules shift biennially.

"When faith in a steady, fair process fades, disengagement surges - the real threat here," she said. "Democracy hinges not just on systems, but belief in their impact."

Some protesting Democrats at Louisiana's Capitol Friday voiced fears of lost influence.

Davis joined a bullhorn rally in Baton Rouge, shouting, "Whose vote? Our vote!"

Seventy-nine-year-old Vietnam vet David Victorian from Baton Rouge added: "I'm worried about our democracy's survival."

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Hanna reported from Topeka, Kan. Associated Press writers Jeffrey Collins in Columbia, S.C., and Kim Chandler in Montgomery, Ala., contributed.