Today, a federal voting rights lawsuit challenging the redistricting of Meriwether County, Georgia, was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia.
The lawsuit was filed on behalf of the Georgia NAACP and two Black Meriwether County registered voters by Advancement Project, along with the law firm Podolsky Law LLC. The lawsuit alleges that the district boundaries for the Meriwether County Board of Commissioners violate Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by diluting the voting strength of Black voters and leaving the Board with no Black representation, even though there had been two Black Commissioners in Meriwether County in the past.
The redistricting plan dilutes the voting strength of Black voters, drastically cutting the Black voting age population in the only district that had a Black commissioner at the time the plan was created in 2022. The new map gives the white voting age population an unbeatable majority in that district of more than 65 percent, resulting in a Black candidate losing to a white opponent in the subsequent election. The County’s leadership did not hold any public hearings addressing redistricting before adopting the current map even though the only Black commissioner on the Commissioners Court at the time requested one….
To read the full complaint, please click here.