SMYRNA, Ga. — Cobb County will vote Tuesday on two county commission seats that have been challenged in court. It means whoever wins the election may have to run again in reconfigured districts.
It is the result of the partisan rancor that comes when a county goes from a Republican majority to Democratic majority, as Cobb County did over the last decade.
At the state capitol, Democrats resisted redistricted maps drawn by Republicans. But in Cobb County – where numerous local races are on the ballot Tuesday – Democrats did more than resist. The Democratic-majority county commission redrew the GOP maps drawn at the capitol.
Tuesday, voters are using those maps to choose candidates to fill those districts.
"There is a lot of confusion because we’ve had, really, three maps drawn in the last three years," explained Democratic state Rep. Teri Anulewicz (D-Smyrna). The competing maps have produced court cases that could nullify Tuesday’s vote.
The Republican state legislature produced a map that puts communities just east and north of Marietta into county commission District 2, shown below.
The Democrat-led redraw of the map shifted much of that territory into District 3, hooking it southwest toward Smyrna into District 4 – impacting all four districts. This is the map, seen below, voters are using Tuesday – even though Republicans are still pushing their map in court.
Anulewicz said Cobb’s partisan shift has shaped the map controversy.
"Cobb is different, because at the end of the day, you have a majority Republican general assembly that does not want the majority Democratic county delegation – the county commission – to draw things in a way that might further erode Republican control in Cobb County," she said.
She noted counties never draw their own maps – the general assembly has always done it. That’s the reason why expectations are pretty high that the county drawn map on the ballot Tuesday won’t pass the muster of the courts.