COBB COUNTY, Ga. — A federal court has blocked Cobb County's map for school board elections next year, saying in a ruling this week that they are "substantially likely to be an unconstitutional racial gerrymander."
The injunction by U.S. District Judge Eleanor L. Ross stems from a lawsuit that was filed against the Cobb County School District map for board member seats.
According to the ruling, the challengers to the maps had alleged the map "packs Black and Latinx voters into the three southern districts (giving them Black and Latinx populations of 63.4%, 77.2%, and 49.97%, respectively) and bleaches the population of the northern districts (giving them white populations of 58.22%, 65.56%, 67.24%, and 58.17%, respectively)"
They demonstrated that the map's districts "were rotated clockwise to shift Districts 2, 3, and 6 (the “Challenged Districts”) toward the southern half of Cobb County, where more voters of color live, whereas Districts 1, 4, 5, and 7 were shifted northward to capture more white voters while shedding non-white voter populations."
Judge Ross wrote the evidence "sufficiently demonstrates that race was the predominant motivating factor in creating the Enacted Map" and supports the lawsuit's contention that the map "was carefully tailored to facilitate the packing of minority voters" with four majority-white districts "made possible by packing the white population in the north and the Black and Latinx population in the south."
The Cobb school board is currently composed of four white men, one white woman, one Black man and one Black woman.
Judge Ross, in her order, laid out a timeline for a new map to be drawn, which must be submitted to the Georgia Georgia General Assembly and passed by the state legislature:
- Period for Georgia General Assembly to adopt a new map: Dec. 18-Jan. 10
- Last day for Plaintiffs or Defendants to enter objections to new map: Jan. 12
- Last day to respond in opposition to other party's objection: Jan. 17
An additional date of April 1 was provided as the last day to submit any motions for summary judgment or to submit a consolidated pretrial order.