Category: Atlanta Civic Circle

More than 600 years before the United States existed, America’s original inhabitants were already practicing a form of democracy that Ben Franklin and other founders would later borrow from. Much of the framework of the U.S. Constitution came from the way 12th century Indigenous people governed, a fact the U.S. Senate did not  acknowledge until 1988. American […]

Cathy Woolard has served in the Peace Corps and on the Atlanta City Council. She has run for mayor and faced the demons and dragons that come with a 40-year career in politics, but nothing could have prepared the 64-year-old politician for her latest job. Woolard has recently been tasked with repairing the reputation of Georgia’s […]

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 […]