Our Georgia legislators are holding public hearings to get input prior to the drawing of house, senate and congressional districts.  But how will that input be used?  There is little public oversight over the process and it is largely done in secret.

There is no good reason for this secrecy.  Those of us that live in Glynn, McIntosh, Camden, Brantley and Wayne counties have an opportunity on July 26 to attend a public hearing in Brunswick and ask our legislators for transparency in the redistricting process.  Usually, proposed maps are published shortly before they are approved, leaving almost no time for public comment.  Time for this practice to end!

Advances in technology have made data used by legislators for developing district maps widely available to the public.  No politician can reasonably argue that secrecy is better than transparency and that conflicts of interest inherent in the existing process don’t matter; therefore our legislators should require that the Redistricting Committees provide a full, timely disclosure of all data, maps, etc. in time for public review and comment.  Just one hearing doesn’t cut it.  We need to know that they have paid attention to our input and how they intend to use it.

I urge you to attend the July 26th public hearing in Brunswick.  Legislators in the General Assembly owe the voters of Georgia a fair redistricting process and result.  For more information go to http://fairdistrictsga.org .

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