At eleven public town halls across Georgia in 2021 hundreds of Georgians expressed concern about the deliberate practice of splitting two-thirds of Georgia’s small cities into multiple districts. Splitting small cities into different districts weakens the collective voice that is critical for strong governing at the most local level. Watering down their collective electoral influence dilutes representation and is the antithesis of representational democracy. These cities went from one state House or Senate district before 2010 to multiple districts after maps were drawn: McDonough, Covington, Lilburn, Rome, Snellville, Tifton, and Waycross. None with a population close to forty thousand. Most with a population of twenty thousand or less. This is unacceptable!

In order to make government in Georgia more representational, I ask readers to contact your state senator and/or Senator John Kennedy, Chair for the Reapportionment and Redistricting Senate Committee, (john.kennedy@senate.ga.gov, 404-656-0045) to ask that the committee publicly release a timeline now. Ask them when the public can see the maps — the public must be given time to review and react to the maps before they are adopted. 

Fair districts matter now and for our future.

Claudia Kirkwood

Macon, Ga.