In December 2021, on the same day that Governor Brian Kemp signed the 2021 new congressional and state House and Senate districts into law, a coalition of advocacy groups filed a lawsuit arguing the maps were unconstitutional. The complaint against the Secretary of State’s office came from Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., the Sixth District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and three citizens. In the case APA v. Raffensperger, the plaintiffs argued that the 2021 maps violated Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and diluted the voting strength of Black Georgians. Through the two years that followed, the lawsuit, paired with two other similar lawsuits — Grant v. Raffensperger and Pendergrass v. Raffensperger — progressed through the judicial process.
On October 26th, 2023, Judge Steve Jones of the Federal District Court ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, agreeing that the maps were unconstitutional. He mandated the legislature make the following changes to the districts: add five Black-majority districts for the Georgia House (two in south-metro Atlanta, one in west-metro Atlanta, and two in the MaconBibb region); add two Black-majority districts in south-metro Atlanta for the Georgia Senate; and add one Black-majority district in westmetro Atlanta for the U.S. House, all “without eliminating any minority opportunity districts.”
The court order led Gov. Kemp to call a special session — a short period for the legislature to meet outside of the 40 legislative days required by the Constitution, which occur between January and March. The special session convened on November 29th, 2023 for seven legislative days. During that time, the Reapportionment and Redistricting Committees of the House and Senate met to draw up and approve new maps. These became H.B. 1EX, S.B. 1EX, and S.B. 3EX, which were authored by Republican leadership and passed through the Republicancontrolled committees before being heard on the House and Senate floors.
The House and Senate each saw significant discussion from legislators on both sides of the political spectrum. A primary argument from the Democratic Party members regarded the language in the judge’s order that read “… without eliminating any minority opportunity district.” Many Democrats maintained that this referred to majority-minority, crossover, or coalition districts, where multiple minority groups make up the majority of the district.
Senator Sonya Halpern said on the Senate floor that Democrats understood this phrase to refer to a district “in which the minority population had an opportunity to cast meaningful votes and elect the candidate of their choosing.” Specifically, the Democratic members referenced Georgia’s 7th congressional district (CD-7), which under S.B. 3EX would decrease its share of Black, Hispanic, and Asian American voters from 67% to 33%.
House Minority Whip Sam Park described the change to CD-7 as an “open defiance of a federal court order,” stating it “is alarming.” Senate Minority Whip Harold Jones agreed and quoted the 2009 Supreme Court ruling in Bartlett v. Strickland, which read, “if there was a showing that a State intentionally drew district lines in order to destroy otherwise effective crossover districts, that would raise serious questions under the Fourteenth and Fifteenth amendments.” Sen. Jones emphasized that the legislature must prioritize coalition districts such as CD-7 to equalize power between white and non-white voters.
On the other side of the aisle, Republicans defended the maps as fair and compliant with the judge’s order. Senator Shelly Echols, who chairs the Senate Reapportionment and Redistricting Committee, described the changes to each district in detail. She explained how the committee took into account the plaintiffs’ map provided in the court order, as well as regional differences in Georgia constituents. For example, she noted that District 13 (CD-13) in the plaintiffs’ map included rural counties, which did not fit as well with the suburban interests in the rest of CD-13, so the committee chose to include parts of Rockdale, Newton, and Gwinnett counties in the district instead.
Further, Sen. Echols attested that the committee made an effort to minimize the work of local election officials. She argued that the maps met all the judge’s requests because “the Voting Rights Act protects distinct racial groups, not coalitions of voters.”
In the House, Representative Rob Leverett, chairman of the committee that parallels Sen. Echols’s committee, agreed. He said that “minority opportunity district” is not a legal term and, according to a three-judge panel, is “dicta.” He outlined how the context of this case solely relates to Black voters, and thus the term “minority opportunity district” simply means majority-Black districts. Rep. Leverett also upheld that the congressional map would not disenfranchise Black voters but would instead create a majority Black district that “will give Black voters a reasonable opportunity to elect the candidate of their choice.”
Regardless of arguments that fell entirely on party lines, the new congressional and state legislative maps passed both chambers of the General Assembly and were signed by the governor on December 8th, 2023. They were then approved by Judge Jones on December 28th, despite objections from the original plaintiffs that the state House and Senate maps failed to effectively remedy the vote dilution outlined in the court order.
These 2023 maps will apply to this year’s elections in Georgia, and they certainly shake things up for legislators and voters. At the congressional level, polling suggests that Georgia will likely maintain its 9-to-5 Republican majority, but Republican Representative Rick McCormick of the 6th district will now run in the 7th district, and Democratic Representative Lucy McBath of the 7th district will now run in District 6.
Rep. McCormick’s district will remain similar, encompassing all of Dawson and Forsyth counties, most of north Fulton County, and part of Cherokee County, but it will lose its parts of Gwinnett and Cobb counties and add Lumpkin County and part of Hall County. Essentially, his district will shift away from Metro Atlanta but maintain most of the population and the same racial makeup.
Rep. McBath faces a greater change. Her current district includes a bit of north Fulton County and a large chunk of Gwinnett County. If she wins re-election, her representation will jump across Atlanta to contain south Fulton and parts of Cobb, Douglas, and Fayette counties. The 6th district will be a Black-majority district, and Rep. McBath will represent a larger share of Black voters and a smaller share of Hispanic and Asian voters compared to her previous representation. Rep. McBath is no stranger to redistricting; the 2021 maps drew her in with another incumbent, Carolyn Bourdeaux, so she has already flip-flopped between the 6th and 7th districts before.
For one pair of Atlanta Democrats, Representatives Saira Draper and Becky Evans, a primary election will determine which one of them may remain in the House. Representative Teri Anulewicz recounted receiving news that she would share a district with Representative Doug Stoner, whom she has worked with for twenty years on the Smyrna City Council Anulewicz in the House, Anulewicz adds, “It was really frustrating for folks in Cobb County to know that their interests were basically not considered.”
In the Georgia General Assembly, legislators tend to work closely with other members who represent the same counties as them. Local legislation, for example, requires signatures from all legislators who represent the impacted counties. As a result of the redistricting process, many state legislators will have to reconcile not only with the changes to their constituencies but also with changes to the fellow members they collaborate with most.
For voters, redistricting can create confusion over who will be on their ballot sheet and ultimately represent them in state and federal government. It may also affect voters’ decisions to participate in the election based on how their vote is elevated or diluted. For example, take a Black voter who lives in Cobb County in the 11th congressional district. In last year’s election, that district was only 16% Black, and the voter might argue that they could not meaningfully vote for the candidate representing Black interests. However, under the new plan, that voter will live in the 6th district, a majority Black district thanks to the court’s order. For others, the opposite effect occurs. A Black voter previously in the 7th district in Gwinnett County, a majority-minority district, will now be within the 10th district, which is 62% white. Under the assumption that Black voters tend to vote similarly, these voters may feel that their vote would be less meaningful, and thus election participation could decrease.
Amid partisan arguments over gerrymandering, it is worth noting that a handful of other states complete redistricting through bipartisan and non-legislative processes. Arizona, California, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Montana, New Jersey, and Washington each have a constitutional process that creates a redistricting commission to draw new congressional and legislative districts. Most of these states depend on a pool of applicants from which legislative leadership selects members, but California’s process aims to be nonpartisan by involving state auditors. Iowa is unique because nonpartisan legislative staff present plans to the legislature to vote on. Alaska, Colorado, Missouri, and Pennsylvania also have independent processes, but only for their state legislative districts. Arkansas and Ohio rely on leadership such as the governor, state auditor, and secretary of state.
These alternatives have struck the interest of several advocacy organizations, including members of the Georgia Redistricting Alliance. Specifically, Fair Districts Georgia pointed out that “no matter what party is in charge, they rarely draw the lines fairly,” and the organization called for an independent nonpartisan redistricting commission in Georgia. Rep. Anulewicz favors a commission process, saying “If we had independent redistricting, we simply wouldn’t have gerrymandering.”
Make sure to stay informed about your voting districts for the 2024 election! Go to mvp.sos.ga.gov, enter your information, and click “view my precinct card” to see all of your voting districts. You can also scroll down to “click here for qualified candidates” to see who will be running in your voting districts.