A legislative commission tasked with researching and recommending a new voting system for Louisiana elections decided Wednesday to delay the final recommendations so members could physically inspect the different systems and machines under consideration.

After weeks of debate, Republican state lawmakers ended Louisiana’s redistricting session by pushing through new congressional and state legislative maps that did not increase minority representation, despite Democrats’ and civil rights groups' claims that failing to do so could violate federal law.

Despite calls from civil rights groups to boost minority representation in the state legislature and in Congress, the Republican-controlled Louisiana Legislature wrapped up its redistricting session by approving maps that largely maintain the status quo.

A surprise bipartisan effort to redraw Louisiana’s nearly 25-year-old state Supreme Court map and bring more minority representation to the bench died on the House floor Wednesday after the chamber’s Republican majority tabled the bill, prematurely suspending debate and preventing a vote.

After weeks of fiery debate, Louisiana lawmakers in the House and Senate advanced proposals to redraw their own legislative districts Monday without meaningfully increasing the number of majority-Black districts in the state legislature.

In a surprising vote, a Republican-controlled House committee advanced a proposed state Supreme Court map that increases the number of majority-Black districts for the state’s highest court. It was the first time either of the Republican-controlled committees at the center of the redistricting process advanced legislation that would create new majority-minority districts in the state.

Governor John Bel Edwards voiced support for adding additional majority-Black voting districts to the state’s election maps at a press conference Monday, but refused to promise he would veto a map that did not accomplish that goal.

The Louisiana House of Representatives voted Thursday to approve a congressional map backed by Republican legislative leaders that includes only one majority-Black congressional district, two days after the Louisiana Senate approved a similar measure.

Louisiana Senate President Page Cortez and House Speaker Clay Schexnayder hired BakerHostetler law firm to provide “redistricting advice” for at least $10,000 per month for three months, according to a contract legislative staff provided Wednesday night in response to a public records request.

Senate approves congressional map despite Democrats’ and civil rights groups’ opposition and a last-minute revelation that a firm hired by GOP legislative leaders offered input behind closed doors.