David Armstrong is the Executive Editor of the Georgia News Lab, an award-winning investigative reporting collaborative. Contact David Armstrong at david.armstrong@georgianewslab.org
While new Census data shows Georgia added more than a million people over the last decade, an even larger change in registered voters — and who they vote for — will be key considerations when lawmakers begin assigning residents into new voting districts this fall.
While census delays have pushed back the timeline for the once-a-decade redistricting process, it’s still possible to get an idea of what changes could — and should — be made to our political maps.
As controversy swirls over the comprehensive new voting law that drastically alters Georgia’s election system, another battle with equally profound implications looms on the horizon: redistricting.
The fight over election law is not new to Georgia lawmakers, but prevailing views have changed. Republicans passed no-excuse absentee voting in 2005, over objections from Democrats concerned about the lack of ID required to vote by mail and stricter regulations to vote in person.
Nearly half of the Georgia state Senate committees headed by Republicans are now led by lawmakers who supported efforts to overturn the November election or promoted false claims of widespread election fraud, a review by the Georgia News Lab and GPB News has found.
