The Cobb County Board of Commissioners does not have the power to amend its own electoral map, as Democrats tried to do in 2022, Judge Ann Harris ruled on Monday.
The ruling comes amid a flurry of redistricting challenges affecting Cobb County in the last year but does not change the status quo: the General Assembly holds the power over county redistricting maps.
Plaintiffs David and Catherine Floam and commissioner Keli Gambrill, who was later removed from the case, sued the county commission in Cobb Superior Court arguing its move in 2022 to change its district map was unconstitutional, and the judge agreed.
Cobb County spokesman Ross Cavitt said the county has filed a notice to appeal the ruling.
During the last redistricting cycle in 2022, GOP state lawmakers bypassed the traditional process by pushing through a map that was not approved by a majority of the Cobb delegation. That map strengthened Republican strongholds in the county while removing Commissioner Jerica Richardson, a Democrat, from her district halfway through her term.
To prevent Richardson from possibly being removed from office, the county used its home rule powers to override the state-approved map in favor of the map proposed by Democratic state lawmakers that already had the approval of the state’s reapportionment office.
The county’s unprecedented legal gambit created a constitutional question that has now been answered through the courts: redistricting powers lie with the state Legislature.
Cavitt said the county’s appeal of the ruling will allow Richardson to continue serving until the appeal is heard.
The county has contended in the past that Richardson would be forced to vacate immediately because commissioners must live in the district they represent, but others have argued she would be able to finish out her term, which ends this year.
Richardson launched her campaign last year to run for U.S. Congress but has since backed away from challenging incumbent U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath in the 6th district. With the recent changes to the state’s congressional map, Richardson has not revealed the next steps in her congressional run.
She said she is disappointed by the judge’s ruling and will continue serving as commissioner throughout the appeals process.
“Regardless of how the ruling came down, there was going to be an appeal,” Richardson said. “But in the meantime, I will still be advocating on behalf of my community.”
Credit: NATRICE MILLER
Credit: NATRICE MILLER
County attorney Elizabeth Monyak argued that the county has the power to change its map under the home rule provision of the state Constitution. While the law does give counties the power to overrule the state Legislature in some circumstances, it does not apply to redistricting, the judge ruled.
The law says the home rule provision cannot be used in “actions affecting elective county office,” which the judge said applies to redistricting.
“Altering commission districts, and thus the citizens who can vote in that district and for that office, is a fundamental action affecting that elective office,” Harris wrote in the ruling.
The conflict has created no shortage of controversy in the county that only a few years ago was a staunch Republican stronghold. Democrats flipped county-wide seats and won a majority on the Board of Commissioners in 2020.
The board’s Republicans, Gambrill and JoAnn Birrell, voted against the map several times and protested the county’s decision last January. At every meeting since the county began operating under its map that the judge has now deemed unlawful, Birrell and Gambrill have issued statements of opposition before voting on county business.
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