Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp on Wednesday ordered state lawmakers back to the Capitol for a special session beginning June 17, targeting the redraw of congressional and legislative districts following a recent U.S. Supreme Court ruling on the Voting Rights Act.
The session also addresses a looming July 1 deadline tied to the state’s voting equipment, a problem lawmakers failed to resolve before adjourning the regular legislative session in April.
The Supreme Court’s 6-3 ruling in a Louisiana redistricting case, issued earlier this month, gave Republican-controlled states significantly more flexibility in drawing congressional maps. Georgia Republicans moved swiftly to act on that opening.
Kemp ruled out revising district boundaries before this year’s elections. Early voting has already started, and candidates are on the ballot. But he made clear the window to act before he leaves office in January 2027 is narrow.
“Republicans are pushing to redraw the maps while a Republican governor remains in office to sign the legislation into law,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Wednesday.
One district in the crosshairs: the southwest Georgia seat held by Rep. Sanford Bishop, a Democrat now in his 17th term who represents one of the South’s remaining rural Black-majority congressional districts. Republicans see the seat as a potential pickup that would shift Georgia’s current 9-5 GOP congressional advantage to 10-4.
Lawmakers are also weighing changes to metro Atlanta districts to further expand Republican margins.
The voting equipment issue is equally urgent. Georgia passed a law two years ago banning QR codes in vote tabulation systems, following pressure from election integrity advocates who argued voters could not independently verify the bar codes scanned by machines. Counties are still using those same machines, however. The state has not approved funding for replacements, and the July 1 compliance deadline is weeks away.
A bipartisan proposal backed by the Georgia House would have delayed the transition to hand-marked paper ballots until 2028. The Senate never took up the measure.
Democrats have criticized the redistricting push as a transparent attempt to entrench Republican power before voters elect a new governor. Legal experts have warned that aggressive map changes could spark immediate lawsuits.
