Georgia Republicans pass new legislative maps despite objections from Democrats

ATLANTA – The General Assembly’s Republican majorities gave final passage to new legislative district maps Tuesday over objections from minority Democrats that the state House and Senate maps violate the Voting Rights Act. Voting along party lines, the Georgia House of Representatives adopted a new state Senate map senators had passed late last week. A short time later, the Senate approved a new state House map House lawmakers had passed last Friday. Tuesday’s votes completed action on revisions to two of three 2021 redistricting maps U.S. District Judge Steve Jones ruled out of compliance with the Voting Rights Act in a decision handed down in October. The two legislative maps now head to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature. The third map containing new congressional district lines cleared the state Senate Tuesday in another party-line vote. The House will vote on the congressional map later this week, wrapping up a special redistricting session Kemp called following the judge’s ruling. As ordered by Jones, the new House map creates five additional Black-majority districts, two in the southern end of metro Atlanta, one in the western portion of the metro region, and two in and around Macon. “It fully complies with...