Candidates for Alabama’s seven congressional seats in the U.S. House of Representatives have until Feb. 11 to finalize their qualifying papers, but for everyone else who’s running for a state or local office, Friday marked the end of the qualifying period ahead of the May 24 party primary election.

Coming near the deadline for candidate qualifying, a U.S. District Court ruling earlier this week created a brief period of confusion for some candidates about whether their qualifying deadlines would be extended.

On Jan. 24, the court had issued a preliminary injunction that extended the deadline until Feb. 11 in order to allow the resolving of a trio of lawsuits (which have been consolidated into a single case) over the state’s newly-redrawn congressional district map.

After questions came pouring in from members of both political parties asking for clarification, the court issued an order clarifying that its ruling applies only to candidates for U.S. House races, since those races are the only ones affected by the Census-redrawn map being challenged in the lawsuit.

The court’s Jan. 24 injunction temporarily blocked the state from using its current congressional map, which was redrawn in November of last year, with the three-judge panel agreeing that plaintiffs in the suit should have the opportunity to pursue their legal claim that the new map violates the federal Voting Rights Act.

Currently, the new congressional map features a single district that concentrates a higher proportion of African-American voters (the 6th congressional district), with the remaining six districts composed predominantly of white voters.

The judges wrote that any remedial plan will need to include two districts in which Black voters “either comprise a voting-age majority or something quite close to it.”

The state attorney general’s office has appealed the judges’ order, arguing that similar districting maps had been in use for decades with court approval, and that the timing of the ruling is problematic because of the near approach of the May party primaries. The state also asked the judges to stay their order during the appeals process.

Cullman County is represented in Congress by the 4th congressional district. Incumbent Robert Aderholt (R-Halyeville) is seeking his 13th term in the current cycle, and faces a primary challenge from Republican Joshua Gaddis. Democrat Rhonda Gore has filed paperwork to challenge the GOP nominee for the seat in the Nov. 8 general election.

Check The Times next week for a listing of all of the local and state candidates who have qualified to seek office in the May 24 party primary election.

The Associate Press contributed to this report.