The clock is ticking for making your voice heard in how you are represented at the Gold Dome and U.S. Capitol.

The Georgia General Assembly has a public form for submitting comment online regarding redistricting, which for most Georgia residents may be the only means by which they can shape an otherwise tightly-controlled process.

To date, only three comments have been submitted from Columbus-Muscogee:

A. Russell of Muscogee County:

we would like all of Muscogee to be in one district. it would be my idea for Muscogee, Harris, and Meriweather to all 3 move to the 2dd Congressional District. thank you for this meeting.

A. Corley of Muscogee County:

I have bodycam footage of the kidnapping that was concealed during the TPR. I have SAAG Kent Lawrence and Mathias Skrowneak signatures on orders that they prepared for the Judges to sign. Kidnapping is a felony and placing my daughter up for an unlawful adoption is human trafficking. I have everything properly documented and authenticated with certification and seal. I also have audio recordings. Gov. Kemp was forwarded everything from Senators Johnny Isakson and Kelly Loeffler’s office as, federal government had to give the the State opportunity to investigate before they could. Gov. Kemp can do something as, he appointed the Commissioners for DHS. Gov. Kemp can do something as, he is head of the State of Georgia and is the executive level. Gov. Kemp had the authority and responsibility to enforce the laws made by the General Assembly. The executive branch which Gov. Kemp is under is defined as: Executive Georgia’s main executive official and head of state is the governor.

H. Underwood of Muscogee County (yours truly):

Good evening committee members, my name is Harry Underwood. I’m a resident of Columbus, a resident of Georgia since 1993 and a board member of Better Ballot Georgia, which advocates for instant-runoff voting, also known as ranked-choice voting. I’d like to take this opportunity to tell you how shameful and tiring I find this practice of redistricting by elected legislators, and how we Georgians ought to know better that this political system – of winner-take-all elections, of partisan redistricting by legislators, of restrictive ballot access laws – perpetuate a baked-in culture of constant two-way factional disrespect, drowning out the needs of our state’s residents. Other than these United States, no other political system on earth has quite the amount of unilateral temerity shared among so many elected legislators to bake in incumbent advantages for their own (and their friends’ own) benefit over the next ten years. The people of this state – no matter what party we may support – should feel upset that our elected legislators won’t let themselves compete on competitive grounds nor let themselves be judged by their ideas and goals for legislation across whole communities, not partitioned neighborhoods who are traded between districts because of their partisan lean. We have done this for over 200+ years, with one party having done this for most of this time, and another party which gained power in the early 2000s now doing the same thing. It is time to say “enough”. The people of this state should demand a better political system than that being exhibited through this committee. Georgia should adopt independent, nonpartisan redistricting by a jury of citizens representative of our state’s demographics. Georgia should adopt multi-winner districts and proportional elections systems including ranked-choice voting. Georgia should let those who want less compromise on their political principles register their own political parties with less cost and overhead than is currently, irrationally demanded under state law, so that we could have even more competitive elections. Georgia should adopt rules which count our state’s prisoners, who are currently barred from the voting franchise, as residents of their last voluntary residence rather than of their current prison, so that prison-hosting districts are not artificially inflated in their numbers during the redistricting process. And finally, Georgia should join 30 other states, including our neighbors in South Carolina, North Carolina and Tennessee, in adopting a state constitutional amendment requiring all elections in this state to be free, fair and open without civil or military interference. These five reforms could make for more elections which are reflective of our communities and demographic changes without legislators feeling the need to create maps which bake in their own advantages over the course of at least the next five successive legislative elections. These reforms could make for elections in which candidates feel more of a need to seek consideration from all voters, not merely those who “look” like they would vote for a certain party. And these reforms could set the guardrails for how our demographics are represented in our General Assembly without pitting our legislators against their constituents. I ask the members of this committee to consider the adoption of nonpartisan redistricting, instant-runoff voting, fairer ballot access laws, a ban on prison gerrymandering, and a free elections amendment to our state constitution. Thank you.

By comparison:

• 89 from Fulton
• 72 from DeKalb
• 46 from Athens-Clarke
• 25 from Cobb
• 25 from Forsyth
• 18 from Macon-Bibb
• 17 from Gwinnett
• 11 from Rockdale
• 10 from Augusta-Richmond
• 9 from Cherokee
• 9 from Glynn
• 8 from Chatham
• 6 from Dougherty
• 6 from Whitfield
• 5 from Camden
• 5 from Fayette
• 5 from Hall
• 5 from Henry
• 4 from Baldwin
• 4 from Bartow
• 4 from Clayton
• 4 from Columbia
• 4 from Oconee
• 3 from Barrow
• 3 from Floyd
• 3 from Houston
• 3 from Jackson
• 3 from Madison
• 3 from Newton
• 3 from Tift
• 2 from Decatur
• 2 from Pickens
• 2 from McIntosh
• 2 from Morgan
• 2 from Towns
• 2 from Walker
• 2 from Ware
• 1 from Bryan
• 1 from Bulloch
• 1 from Burke
• 1 from Carroll
• 1 from Chattooga
• 1 from Coweta
• 1 from Crisp
• 1 from Dade
• 1 from Douglas
• 1 from Effingham
• 1 from Gilmer
• 1 from Harris
• 1 from Johnson
• 1 from Jones
• 1 from Monroe
• 1 from Montgomery
• 1 from Toombs
• 1 from Walker
• 1 from Walton
• 1 from Washington
• 1 from White

In the meantime, a special session of the General Assembly has been called by Governor Kemp for November 3 to redraw congressional and legislative districts for the next ten years. Partisan gerrymandering is likely, with no constitutional guardrails in place at the state level and the process being controlled by Republican legislators.

In addition, it will be the first redistricting process since the U.S. Supreme Court gutted the Voting Rights Act’s preclearance provisions, meaning that state legislatures do not have to submit their maps to the U.S. Justice Department for review for any racial bias prior to implementation. Finally, it is possible that bills will be filed to ban local governments from issuing mask or vaccine mandates, a bete noire of Republicans nationwide.