Georgia Voters Challenge Discriminatory Congressional Map with Support of National Redistricting Foundation
NRF Finds Georgia Map Dilutes Voting Power of Black Communities
Washington, D.C. — The congressional map signed by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp is being challenged for diluting the voting strength of the state’s Black communities in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) by a group of individual voters with the support of the National Redistricting Foundation (NRF). The lawsuit, Pendergrass v. Raffensperger, was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
“The congressional map signed into law by Governor Brian Kemp is a shameless power grab that cheats Black voters out of proper representation,” said Marina Jenkins, NRF Director of Litigation and Policy. “Politicians in the General Assembly have abandoned all pretense of protecting the communities they were elected to serve. We are proud to support voters in challenging this newly-signed map, and we call for a plan that complies with the Voting Rights Act and properly protects the rights of Georgia’s Black voters.”
The complaint details that the Black population in Georgia is sufficiently large and geographically compact to create an additional majority-Black congressional district on the northwestern and western side of the Atlanta metropolitan area. Instead of drawing such a district, however, the Georgia General Assembly packed some Black voters in the Atlanta metro area and the new Thirteenth District, while cracking others among rural-reaching, predominantly white districts.
Between 2010 and 2020, Georgia’s population grew by more than 1 million people, growth which was entirely attributable to the growing minority population in Georgia. According to the 2020 Census, Georgia’s white population decreased by over 4 percent, while Black Georgians now compose more than 33% of the state’s population. Nevertheless, H.B. 2EX entrenches the state’s white majority by packing and cracking Georgia’s Black voters around the metro Atlanta area.
The strategic cracking and packing of Georgia’s Black communities shows why Congress must do everything it can to recognize this threat and counteract it by passing the John Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act and the Freedom to Vote Act, which together would strengthen protections for communities of color, ban partisan gerrymandering, and put power in the hands of the people, where it belongs.
The complaint can be found here.
Contact: Brian Gabriel | Gabriel@redistrictingfoundation.org