Republicans in the House and Senate are one step closer to redrawing the state's legislative districts after both chambers' plans received key committee approval Tuesday.
If all goes as planned, the new district maps could get final legislative approval this week.
But the votes in committee came despite criticism from voters and Democrats that Republicans are moving too fast and moving in the wrong directions.
"This process is very confusing to me: I don't understand why we can't have a non-political process to do this," Sherry Blackwood of Duluth told senators Tuesday, the first time the public had a chance to weigh in on proposed maps for both the Senate and the House. "Why were the rules changed so we don't have as much time" to ask questions?
In the House meeting, Blackwood was also critical.
"It's a majority-minority county," Blackwood said. "If you have 17 districts and only one is a majority-minority district you have a problem."
House members met for three hours before starting public comment and then limited each person to no more than one minute. Most of the comments were from south Georgians urging lawmakers to preserve a pair of rural districts that had been combined in the GOP plan.
Democrats in both chambers, meanwhile, accused Republicans of using their power to diminish Democratic voting strength and barring Senate Democrats from proposing alternative plans. GOP leaders didn't blink, however, and said their colleagues needed to learn to read the rules.
Redistricting, or redrawing the state's legislative and congressional districts, happens at least once every 10 years after the release of data from the U.S. Census Bureau. Georgia lawmakers officially started that task Monday, with senators taking the lead by approving new rules meant to speed the new maps' passage.
Redistricting is hugely important to elected officials as a minor change in district lines has the potential to sway an election. They are equally important to voters because it can increase their community's influence or decrease it, depending on how the lines are drawn. The party in power, this time the Republicans, gets to draw the maps.
Public drafts of the new proposed legislative districts were released on Friday. Senate Minority Leader Steven Henson, D-Tucker, said he had planned to unveil a Democratic plan for redistricting at an 11 a.m. committee hearing Tuesday. Instead, Sen. Mitch Seabaugh, R-Sharpsburg, said the plan had not been submitted at least 24 hours before the meeting started as rules adopted in April require.
Afterward, speaking to reporters in the Capitol hallway, Seabaugh said he is not trying to "ram the plan through" as Democrats alleged.
"Compared to what?" he said. "In 2001 [when Democrats controlled the process] we were in session for almost three weeks and the Democratic caucus walked into a committee meeting, unveiled a map and voted it out in 10 minutes."
Other Democrats, meanwhile, continued to hammer away at what they see as a Republican overthrow of Fulton County by increasing the GOP membership in the delegation from three to six, enough for a majority.
Sen. Donzella James, D-Atlanta, would lose parts of her district currently in south Fulton, including Chattahoochee Hills.
"I got cherry-picked all over the place," James said in a sharp exchange with Seabaugh in committee. "I don't want to call you a bold-faced liar. Every single thing I asked for got taken out of my district. I thought this was going to be a fair process. But it was not. This senator has been shafted."
Seabaugh said the Fulton map was not an attempt to hand Republicans control. "It was an innocent byproduct," he said, adding that normal adjusting of several districts in the county led to the changes.
About the Author
