Back in December, Representative John Conyers Jr. resigned his seat in Michigan’s 13th District over sexual harassment allegations. He had been one of Congress’s longest-serving members, having represented the district, which is 57 percent black, for 52 years.

Eight months later, on Tuesday, there was a special primary election to fill his seat for the remaining few months of his term. Tuesday was also the day of a primary election to fill the open position in Congress’s next term.

Two races on the same day for the same seat in different terms.

Confused? So were we.

So, why were there two races?

The easy answer is to save money, or at least that’s the reason Michigan Republican Gov. Rick Snyder gave in a statement in December. Instead of hosting a separate special election to fill Mr. Conyers’s seat, he scheduled the special election to be on the same days as the primary and general voting already scheduled for 2018 to save taxpayers the expense of hosting more elections.

Governor Snyder also said he wanted to give ample time for candidates to decide whether to run for the seat. In the same news release, he said that the more time candidates have to file their paperwork gives constituents more options as to who will next represent them in Congress. More time to file means more people would file.