COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — The fight over redistricting in Ohio is now headed to federal court.

A group of Republican voters filed a lawsuit in federal court Friday urging the court to adopt a set of legislative maps previously ruled unconstitutional by the Ohio Supreme Court.

The deadline to vote on a new map to determine Ohio’s state legislative maps came and went Thursday night with no decision — despite a court-ordered deadline handed down by the Ohio Supreme Court.

Secretary of State Frank LaRose is supposed to be preparing for the primary — less than three months away.

But it may have to be delayed. There are deadlines that Ohio has to meet to make sure ballots get to Ohio voters here and abroad.

“Getting the ballots to our brave men and women serving overseas and their family members is a top priority for me,” LaRose said. “This is one of the things that got me involved in working on elections administrations issues in the first place.”

For now, all 88 boards of election are planning for a primary election on May 3rd. There are two options if Ohio doesn’t have statehouse maps: move the primary date or hold two separate primary elections, LaRose said.

“That’s a decision that is made by the general assembly or one could suppose by a federal court because there is now a pending lawsuit there. But that’s decision that’s not made by the Secretary of State, not made by the boards of elections,” LaRose said. “If there’s a decision, they need to move the date. I would first propose they keep it a unified date — that there be one primary that they move it by a couple weeks or months to give the boards of elections to hold one primary at one point of time.”

LaRose added that doing a split primary could prove to be expensive.

“My guess and it’s kind of a back of the envelope guess, but it’s in the 15 to 25 million dollar range to conduct an additional primary and I would say that the state legislature, if that’s the decision they make should also bring funding to the table to make sure these county governments are kept while when it comes to the cost of running and additional primary,” LaRose said.

Aaron Sellers, public information officer of the Franklin County Board of Elections said in a normal year without new maps, his office would already be devising a ballot.

“Right now, we would be preparing the ballot,” Sellers said. “There’s a vetting process that’s pretty extensive. To ensure everything is correct, we would’ve already used GIS equipment to create the new districts and tested that.”

For LaRose, leaving the Ohio Redistricting Commission Thursday with no maps — despite the court-ordered deadline — was disappointing.

“I was hopeful we would be able to find that compromise — I was hoping that we would get there,” he said. “There’s a school of thought by some that what the court has asked us to do is not even possible to do. As I said last night on the record in the commission, we’re each duty bound by an oath of office to abide by the Ohio Constitution and the United States Constitution.”