The third of a planned 11 meetings to gather citizen input on the upcoming Georgia redistricting was held Tuesday night at the South Forsyth High School in Cumming.
About 40 people spoke to the leaders of the House and Senate Reapportionment Committees. The majority of those who spoke were women. The speakers were also predominately Caucasian.
MORE: Reapportionment Committees Hit the Road for State Redistricting
Georgia’s growing minority and immigrant communities were represented by Black, Latino and Asian speakers, including a man who was one of the last to flee Vietnam before the fall of Saigon on April 30, 1975, and a woman who left China shortly after the Tiananmen Square Massacre in 1989.
Committee members were again urged to be transparent in the redistricting process and end gerrymandering.
Meetings are also set for Athens and Augusta.
The Athens event will be on Tuesday, July 6 at building F at Athens Technical College.
In Augusta, the July 7 meeting will be at Savannah Rapids Pavilion in Martinez.
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All the town hall meetings will be from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m.
The committees are asking for citizen input on the redistricting process that takes place once every 10 years.
Members of the public may choose to speak in person and can sign up starting at 4:30 p.m. outside the meeting location. Speakers are asked to keep their comments to between two and five minutes.
Citizens can also submit written comments here: https://www.legis.ga.gov/news/house/submit-written-testimony-to-house-and-senate-redistricting-committees
MORE: Listening to What Georgians Want for Redistricting
All the hearings will be livestreamed at: https://www.legis.ga.gov/ and videos of each hearing will be available there, as well.
Additional hearings are planned for Brunswick on July 26, Albany on July 27, Columbus on July 28 and Macon on July 29. Locations for those have not yet been released.
The final hearing will be virtual participation only. It is scheduled for July 30.
Dana Lynn McIntyre is a Staff Reporter with The Augusta Press. You can reach her at dana@theaugustapress.com.
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