Members of the Georgia House and Senate Reappointment Committees have wrapped up their series of 11 community input meetings after a stop in Augusta Wednesday evening.
About 150 people attended the meeting at Savannah Rapids Pavilion. Twenty-five people signed up to speak; 12 male, 13 female; 18 people of color and seven Caucasian.
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Commissioners Ben Hasan and Jordan Johnson were among those in attendance. Both men are members of the Richmond County redistricting committee, made up of representatives from the Augusta Commission, Richmond County Board of Education and the local legislative delegation.
Hasan said, “Ultimately, what we will do here is going to end up in the state’s hands so we can make sure we get it right and we can have less intrusion from the state.”
Richmond County Board of Elections Executive Director Lynn Bailey said, “I know that here locally, although the local committee hasn’t formulated their guiding principals yet, they’ll be looking at suggestions to keep neighborhoods together, keep precinct boundaries together and other things that are important for continuity to votes.”
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That was one of the points made by numerous Richmond County residents. They pointed out the county is currently districted in a way they feel dilutes the minority voting power. It’s an example of a practice called “cracking and packing,” creating districts that break apart communities with similar concerns so their votes aren’t large enough to address local needs, or concentrating voters in a single district to lessen their voting power in other districts.
Resident Carlton Howard said, “Richmond County is the poster child for packing.”
Columbia County residents and elected officials also attended. Columbia County has not yet started looking at its local redistricting plan.
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County Manager Scott Johnson said, “When the census numbers come in, we can really confirm what our commission districts will look like and what needs to be moved when we start looking at it. We have some commission districts that need to shrink and some that need to grow. That’s just part of this process.”
The U.S. Census Bureau announced an August 12 news conference to release the first of the local numbers collected in the 2020 census.
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a Staff Reporter with The Augusta Press. You can reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com.
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