Georgia Republican lawmakers Thursday advanced through Senate and House committees new legislative district maps after rejecting proposed maps that Democratic legislators contend better comply with a federal court order to create seven new majority Black legislative districts.
The pair of House and Senate district maps endorsed by state Republican lawmakers appear to be on the fast track to a Friday vote in the Senate and House chambers, a week ahead of a Dec. 8 deadline that U.S. District Court Judge Steve C. Jones set for the state to have new maps ready ahead for the 2024 election.
The GOP maps were approved on Thursday along political party line votes by House and Senate redistricting committees that met on the second day of the special redistricting legislative session.
Senate and House Republicans argue that their revised legislative districts comply with the court mandate to carve out seven new majority Black legislative districts west and south of metro Atlanta and in the Macon-Bibb County area. The Democrats say they’re backing a redistricting plan that is better designed stand up to a judge’s scrutiny. If the state doesn’t adopt new maps by next week that remedy the dilution of Black voting power, the court could draw up Georgia’s new districts.
The Republican-drawn maps have been criticized by voting rights groups and Democratic legislators for shifting a large number of Black voters from predominantly Black districts to create new majority Black district boundaries.
Jones ruled last month that Georgia’s Republican-controlled legislature violated the Voting Rights Act of 1965 when it redrew voting maps in 2021 in a way that diluted the power of Black voters. The 2021 redistricting effort followed a 2020 Census count that showed Georgia’s rapid growth over the previous decade was largely due to an influx of Black people and other minorities.
Gainesville Republican Sen. Shelly Echols, who chairs the…
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