The Georgia House Reapportionment and Redistricting Committee on Wednesday passed a Senate-approved congressional map.

The map, approved by the committee in a 9-4 vote, now goes to the House floor. The House redistricting committee’s Republican-controlled Senate counterpart — as well as the full Senate body — essentially finished its redistricting tasks Tuesday. 

The congressional map, which caught flak from Democrats and voting rights activists for alleged violations of the Voting Rights Act, is the last piece of the puzzle of Georgia’s court-ordered redistricting task. 

The legislative maps are already headed to Gov. Brian Kemp’s desk for his signature. If the House passes the congressional map — which it likely will — Georgia lawmakers will have met their Dec. 8 deadline with ease.

U.S. District Court Judge Steve Jones ordered Georgia lawmakers to redo their 2021 Senate, House and congressional maps after he found them to be in violation of Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act. Jones gave explicit instructions in his 516-page order on ways the maps could be fixed. Jones’ order stemmed from a lawsuit brought by Black fraternity Alpha Phi Alpha and other plaintiffs who alleged the maps weakened Black voters’ ability to elect candidates of their choice.

Kemp called a special session to get the mandate done.

That said, the last six days at the Capitol have not been without strife. The Republican-drawn Senate, House and congressional maps came under heavy scrutiny and criticism from community activists, voting rights groups and Democratic and Black lawmakers. Many accused the process of being nothing more than a “shell game.” One lawmaker likened it to “playing with an old deck of cards.”

Georgia faces the possibility of having a third party, known as a special master, redo its maps if the judge finds any or all of them unacceptable.

The map that could pose a problem is the congressional map, University of Georgia professor Charles Bullock, a nationally-renowned expert on redistricting, told State Affairs. 

While lawmakers created a new majority-Black congressional district in Cobb, Douglas, Fulton and Fayette counties — to be known as District 6, the map also divides an existing district — District 7, which is southern Gwinnett and northern Fulton counties, represented by U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath, who is Black. 

Jones expressly forbade Georgia lawmakers from disrupting or changing existing “minority opportunity” districts. A minority opportunity district is one in which a minority group does not dominate but is large enough to have a reasonable chance to elect its preferred candidate, who might be a member of that minority group, Bullock said.

In District 7, no ethnic group has a majority, but Blacks, Hispanics and Asian voters collectively tend to vote Democrat.

Once the maps are submitted, the judge will order a hearing.

“So my expectation is that would be what the hearing would focus on,” Bullock said. “Is there a new congressional district on the west side of Atlanta? Yes, there is the new 6th district. I think the state would say, ‘You know, judge, we’ve done it, we did it there.’ I would think the plaintiffs would come back and say, ‘Yes, judge, but they ignored that other part because look what they did to Lucy McBath’s district’.”

That said, the question remains: Are these reasonable, working maps?

In case you missed it, here’s what you need to know about the special legislative session.

• What is a special session of the Georgia Legislature, and why is it happening?
• Legislators schedule special assembly to address redistricting, but will they make headway?
• Say what? Terms you may hear during the special session
• Redistricting Georgia 2023: Our continuing coverage

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