A federal judge in the American state of Georgia approved a Republican redistricting of the electoral districts on Thursday, various American media report. The new electoral map had already been approved in the Republican-dominated parliament at the beginning of December.
In October, the judge ordered the Republicans to design a new electoral map. In the old map, the votes of black voters counted less, the judge ruled at the time. That violates American election law.
The new electoral map has added an electoral district west of Atlanta with a majority black population. However, a nearby district represented by Democrat Lucy McBath, a black woman, also fell. McBath’s district has mostly black, Latino and Asian voters.
Minority Districts
Democrats and civil rights groups argued in court that the revised map conflicts with the judge’s previous ruling. After all, it had ruled that Georgia could not solve the problem “by eliminating minority districts elsewhere.” Republicans argued that the redistricting was consistent with the decision because McBath’s district is not majority black.
Republicans won nine of the fourteen districts of the US House of Representatives in Georgia in the 2022 legislative elections. After Thursday’s ruling, that ratio is likely to remain unchanged. In the 2024 legislative elections, Democrats only need to add five seats nationally to gain a majority in the House of Representatives.
In the US, there is a lot of concern about organizing constituencies in a way that thwarts political competition. When this is done consciously, it is called gerrymandering. The Georgia branch of the NAACP, a civil rights organization, has already called the new map an “example of racial gerrymandering.” It is not yet clear whether Democrats and their supporters will appeal the new ruling.
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