ATLANTA — Lawmakers made progress Friday toward submitting three new voter maps to a U.S. District Judge.
In October, Judge Steve Jones ordered the Georgia General Assembly to come up with new maps after ruling the current districts discriminate against black voters.
His mandate said lawmakers should submit a state Senate map that includes two new districts where most voters are Black, a state House map where five new districts have a majority of Black voters and a U.S. Congressional map where one new district has mostly Black voters.
The judge pointed out districts where the power of Black voters is currently diluted. That includes districts in South and West metro Atlanta as well as Bibb and Macon Counties.
The Republican-backed Senate map proposal modified 15 districts. Eight were identified by the court as being part of those that are discriminatory.
The Democrat-backed map proposal modified 10 districts. Those 10 were identified by the court as diluting the power of voters who are black.
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In the House, the Republican-backed map proposal modified 56 districts. The Democrat-backed map modified 23 districts.
Republicans control both the House and Senate in Georgia, and Republican-backed maps won the most votes in both branches Friday.
“It’s a hoax,” argued Sen. Gloria Butler, who is the Senate Minority Leader.
“We complied with the judge’s order with this map,” said Sen. Shelly Echols, leader of the Senate Redistricting Committee.
She argued Democrats did not have any questions for her until the maps made it past committees and onto the Senate floor for a full vote Friday.
Democrats argued their proposed maps had less ripple effects on surrounding districts and did not pit candidates from the same party against one another.
“The Republican map takes five steps forward and two steps back,” said House Minority Leader Rep. Sam Park.
Republicans said the Democrat-backed map in the House only added four new districts with the majority of Black voters.
The fifth district modified Representatives to allow voters to choose from a candidate of their choice.
The House and Senate redistricting committees must consider each opposing branch’s maps. If passed, the governor will have a chance to sign before they go to the district judge’s desk for final approval.
Then, the committees will begin debating the congressional map. Republicans submitted their proposal for that Friday afternoon.
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