Author Archives: Tammy Joyner

The process of redrawing Georgia’s political districts opened Wednesday with the Republican-controlled Georgia Senate proposing a map that would help them retain control. Thirty-four Republicans and 22 Democrats currently sit in the Georgia State Senate, and they’re in charge of updating district maps to keep their constituencies equal as the state’s population grows. The GOP-proposed […]

A day after his staff oversaw a trouble-free municipal election, the head of Fulton County’s elections operations announced he will leave at the end of the year. Rick Barron notified county officials Wednesday afternoon that he would resign Dec. 31 from the job he has held for more than eight years, the last year of […]

A coalition of civil rights groups joined the redistricting fray last week with its own proposed set of political maps. The Unity maps were done to give lawmakers an example of new district maps that reflect the state’s growing racial diversity. The maps were created by the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP, the Georgia Coalition for the […]

Atlanta clinched the World Series, but don’t put away the popcorn just yet: Today’s opening round of Georgia’s special legislative session on redistricting promises to be suspenseful. The once-a-decade session begins at 1 p.m. and is expected to last until around Thanksgiving. Follow the proceedings here. The Republican-controlled legislature is redrawing political boundaries in a state […]

A coalition of civil rights groups unveiled maps for new political districts Friday that it says create a more fair and equitable representation of Georgia’s increasingly diverse population. The coalition’s Georgia Unity Redistricting plan comes five days before state legislators gather for a special session to redraw the state’s Congressional, state Senate and state House […]

The Arthur M. Blank Family Foundation announced today it is giving $10 million in grants to a dozen civil and voting rights advocacy groups. Each of the 12 groups is working to ensure eligible Americans can vote and participate in the democratic process, with a focus on Georgia and the Southeast. The money is the first […]

With nine days left before Georgia lawmakers start redrawing political boundaries, redistricting activists are making one last informational go-round this week about the once-a-decade political task. Redistricting, the process of drawing electoral district boundaries, is often controversial and complex, using updated census data to carve out new district maps. Click here to read the full […]

Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr is part of a national group of attorneys general calling the federal government’s crackdown on harassment of school officials an unlawful infringement of parental free speech. The move comes as the federal government tries to crack down on harassment and violence against school officials, mostly from parents reacting to the […]

A new voter protection group has teamed with the Democratic Party to finance year-round staff in the battleground states of Georgia, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, and Texas. Power The Vote will start with six paid positions in Georgia: a director and five deputy regional directors. The group has raised hundreds of thousands of dollars so […]

Some of metro Atlanta’s top lawmakers gathered with constituents this week to discuss the arrival of Georgia’s long-awaited redistricting season. The pandemic and delays in census data already has this redistricting season running months behind schedule. Tech-savvy map-drawers and lawmakers will set about reshaping Georgia’s political landscape next month. It promises to be a session […]

Growing up, King Walker, a high school senior from Bankhead, knew about presidential elections, but he knew little, if anything, about local elections. “Nobody taught me really about voting and democracy,” the Booker T. Washington High School student told Atlanta Civic Circle. “I just knew that the presidential election was big, but the rest of the […]

In July 2020, at the height of the pandemic, gamers gathered for an epic online competition of the popular video game Fortnight. Not only was the virtual event a chance to watch the best gamers in the country battle for a $10,000 prize, it was also a chance to urge gamers to become more civic-minded. In […]

A judge dismissed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking further inspection of alleged fraudulent absentee ballots cast in Fulton County during last year’s presidential election. Henry County Superior Court Chief Judge Brian Amero’s decision came after Georgia election investigators found no evidence to support claims that fake ballots were found during a recount. Amero’s ruling ends the […]

Dunwoody voter Vasu Abhiraman has cast most of his ballots in the 6th Congressional District, a collection of north Atlanta suburbs. Yet, under a new congressional district map proposed last week by Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and Ga. Sen. John F. Kennedy, Abhiraman would now be in the 4th District, which would include most of DeKalb […]

Voter suppression comes in many forms. It can be as subtle as preventing a blind man from being able to verify his vote. Or, as some critics contend, as flagrant as passing laws that affect millions of voters. To date, lawmakers in 19 states — including Georgia — have passed 33 laws that make it more […]

U.S elections are secure, but recent partisan-fueled efforts to overhaul the process are undermining years of voting and civil rights progress. That’s the consensus of national experts who gathered Thursday to talk about election security. The virtual roundtable was the fourth installment in “Reimagining Democracy,” hosted by journalist and former CNN correspondent Jeanne Meserve. The […]

A proposed draft of a new congressional map introduced this week by two top Georgia Republican lawmakers blindsided redistricting activists and politicians, many of whom only learned about the proposal on social media. Lt. Gov. Geoff Duncan and State Sen. John F. Kennedy quietly released the map late Monday night, calling it in a joint prepared statement, […]

Georgia’s two public broadcasting stations will air a new documentary tonight on the nation’s 39th president Jimmy Carter. The ”In Their Own Words” series, airing at 8 p.m., is said to be one of the more candid looks at the country’s oldest living president, James Earl Carter Jr., who turns 97 on Friday. Carter and those […]

The redistricting season officially opens in Georgia in November, the day after Georgians go to the polls to cast ballots in some 1,600 municipal elections. Gov. Brian Kemp signed a proclamation late Thursday to convene a special session on Nov. 3 on redistricting. The session also will deal with other policy and procedural issues. The process is […]

The 2021 redistricting cycle has begun in earnest. The nation’s exhaustive and often divisive task of reshaping political lines officially began this week. On Monday, the Texas legislature formally convened its special session to redraw maps in a state where 44 percent of its 4 million residents live in five counties. The map-drawing phase of […]