FAQs • Augusta • CivicEngage

The 14th Amendment Information: The 14^th Amendment to the United States Constitution granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the US, including former slaves, and guaranteed all citizens equal protection of the laws. In the context of voting rights, the US Supreme Court has interpreted “equal protection of the laws” to include the concept “one person, one vote.”

▼
2021 Redistricting

The Voting Rights Act prohibits denying the right of any citizen of the United States to vote on account of race or color. This includes any procedure that diminishes the ability of a citizen to elect their preferred candidate on account of race, color or membership in a language minority.

The Voting Rights Act also prohibits vote dilution. In a nutshell, vote dilution means limiting the effectiveness of a particular group’s vote.

2. Georgia’s State Constitution Information: Georgia’s State Constitution requires state legislative districts to be contiguous. Contiguous means to share a common border or to touch. For purposes of redistricting, a district is contiguous if you can travel from any point in the district to any other point in the district without crossing the district’s boundary.

3. The 14th Amendment Information: The 14^th Amendment to the United States Constitution granted citizenship to all persons born or naturalized in the US, including former slaves, and guaranteed all citizens equal protection of the laws. In the context of voting rights, the US Supreme Court has interpreted “equal protection of the laws” to include the concept “one person, one vote.”

4. When will the Ad Hoc Redistricting Committee Meet?: The meetings are scheduled on Wednesdays at 6:00 PM beginning Wednesday, 11/10/2021. Check back on the Calendar of Events for location information.

5. What is Redistricting?: Redistricting is required in order to re-balance population following the release of new Census data.

6. What is the role of the Redistricting Committee?: To evaluate current districts to determine where there has been growth or decline in population and develop a districting plan that brings the districts back to a uniform size. Once a plan is decided upon by the Committee, it is forwarded to the Augusta Commission and Board of Education for adoption.

7. What is the current structure of the Augusta Commission and Board of Education?: Currently, the district lines for both the Augusta Commission and the Board of Education mirror each other. There are 8 single member districts numbered 1 through 8 and 2 super districts numbered 9 and 10. Each super district is comprised of 4 single member districts. Super District 9 is a combination of single districts 1, 2, 4, and 5 and Super District 10 is a combination of single districts 3, 6, 7, and 8.

8. How many representatives does each citizen have on the Augusta Commission and the Board of Education?: Each citizens is represented by 2 Commissioners and 2 members of the Board of Education – their single member representative and their super district representative.

9. How did Augusta’s population change from 2010 to 2020?

Year	Total Population	Ideal District Size	Percentage Growth
2010	200,549	25,069
2020	206,607	25,826	+3.12%

10. How are the members of the Ad Hoc Redistricting Committee appointed?: Four Commissioners are appointed by the Augusta Commission, 4 members of the Board of Education are appointed by the Board of Education, and 4 members of the Legislative Delegation are appointed by the Legislative Delegation.