ATLANTA (February 27, 2012) – Senate Bill 494, which redraws Athens – Clarke County Commission districts, received its first reading in the state senate today and was assigned to the State and Local Government Operations Committee. The bill is co-sponsored by Senator Bill Cowsert (R-District 46) and Senator Frank Ginn (R-District 47) and is expected to pass the Senate on a local consent calendar and be transmitted to the House for consideration this week.
The Athens-Clarke County Charter requires the General Assembly to redistrict following each decennial census. Section 3 of the Charter requires each district to be as “nearly equal in population as practicable” and in compliance with the requirements of the Voting Rights Act which protects the voting rights of African Americans. The one man – one vote principle of the U.S. Constitution also mandates that districts be equal in size.
The plan differs from the map suggested by the Athens-Clarke County Commission which made only slight adjustments to district boundaries to correct discrepancies of up to 19.72% in size between current districts. SB 494 calls for 10 equal size districts, eliminating the two “super districts” in the process. The NAACP and other members of the community have recently protested that the Super Districts violate the Voting Rights Act by suppressing minority representation. Representative Doug McKillip, commented that “Super districts in Athens clearly violate Section 2 of the Capitol Voting Rights Act, and they do, without question, dilute the voting strength of some groups.”
The delegation confirmed that after hours of meetings, conference calls, discussions and legal research, they could not muster sufficient support for the map proposed by the County Commission. Therefore, the local delegation has elected to proceed with this compromise in order to comply with the duty delegated to the General Assembly by the Charter. Said Cowsert, “although I am disappointed that we were unable to accept the recommendation of the County Commission, there simply are not enough votes to get their plan through the General Assembly, and this plan is a fair and reasonable compromise.”
Senator Cowsert stated that “the redistricting plan complies with the one man-one vote principle of the Constitution, complies with the Voting Rights Act, complies with the Athens-Clarke County Charter, and does not change the current form of government consisting of 10 Commissioners and a Mayor.” The only significant change is the configuration of the districts which are now equal in size with an ideal size of 116,714. Cowsert noted that this plan “has significantly smaller population variances than the plan proposed by the County Commission, keeps neighborhoods and communities of interest together, and was carefully drawn to avoid paring any incumbent commissioners”. In fact the largest deviation to the downside from the ideal size is 170 (negative 1.46%) voters and on the upside is 194 (plus 1.66%) voters.
The bill also eliminates an existing requirement that the redistricting plan be signed into law six months prior to use because a recent general law moved commissioner elections to July, and the six month requirement had therefore become unworkable. The bill directs the unified government to submit the plan to the United States Department of Justice for preclearance within 15 days of passage in order to comply with the provisions of the Voting Rights Act.
RELEASE
For Immediate Release:
February 28, 2012
For Information Contact:
Natalie Dale, Director
natalie.dale@senate.ga.gov
404.656.0028