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ACC Commissioners to talk redistricting at Tuesday work session

Athens-Clarke County Commissioners will get a briefing on the redistricting process at their work session on Tuesday. While much of the focus on redistricting is on new maps for congressional and state legislative districts, new maps will have to be drawn for city and county districts across the state, including in Athens. At Tuesday’s work session, ACC Commissioners will get a look at what county staff have been working on.

Overall, Clarke County’s population grew over the last decade, meaning that the county’s ten commission districts will need to be redrawn to balance out that population growth. The biggest growth over ten years was in districts 2 and 4, meaning that voters in the area east of downtown, around Vine Street and Peter Street, as well as Nellie B may need to be moved into other commission districts to balance the new districts in terms of population.

County staff say that they intend to submit four maps to the Mayor and Commission for consideration. One would be generally in line with the current map, with necessary adjustments for population growth. A second alternative would a more detailed version of the first plan. A third plan would keep district lines roughly the same but would also put more of a focus on equity. The final alternative would be a return to a previous incarnation of ACC districts, with just eight districts and two at-large superdistricts.

At the work session on Tuesday, Commissioners will hear county staff lay these options out in more detail, and they could see actual proposed maps in about a week and a half. State legislators are expected to return to Atlanta late this year to begin the redistricting process, and they will have to vote on a final map for Athens-Clarke County at some point in that process.

Tuesday's work session begins at 5:30 PM and will be streamed live on the county's YouTube channel.

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