BATON ROUGE - U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields and 10 candidates running for office joined a federal lawsuit against Louisiana's top leaders following the suspension of the U.S. House primary elections. 

Activist Eugene Collins and Lindsay Garcia, a Democratic candidate for the U.S. House 5th Congressional District, filed the lawsuit on April 30, which alleges that changes so close to election day threaten to disenfranchise voters, especially those who cast mail-in ballots. 

On Sunday, Collins announced that 11 others have now joined the suit, including U.S. Rep. Cleo Fields and candidates Jessee Fleenor, Dan McKay, Larry Foy, Matt Gromlich, Conrad Cable, John Day, Lauren Jewett, Jamie Davis, Nick Albares, and Gary Crockett.

The change to the ballot came after the Louisiana v. Callais Supreme Court decision, which found that the Louisiana Congressional map was illegally racially gerrymandered. Jeff Landry said the state is legally prohibited from using the map, which includes a second Black-majority district.

Gov. Landry signed an executive order, which was certified by Nancy Landry, two days before early voting started, to suspend voting for the U.S. House primaries on ballots. 

Early voting started May 2, and voters are being informed before they go into the ballot box that their votes for the U.S. House races will not count.

The lawsuit alleges that the immediate action to cancel the election was not ordered in the Supreme Court decision, and parties should have 25 days to request a rehearing. It says that 100,000 absentee ballots, which do not reflect the updated changes, have already been sent out. 

Election day is May 16.