Judge: Lawmakers have until January to draw a new Cobb school board map

A federal judge ordered Thursday that the upcoming Cobb school board election take place under a new map, as part of an ongoing lawsuit over the redrawn boundaries in the state’s second-largest school system.

It’s a win for the voting rights groups, led by the Southern Poverty Law Center, that sued the Cobb County Board of Elections in 2022 over new maps for the seven Cobb school board voting districts. They alleged the maps were discriminatory and “packed” people of color into small areas to dilute their voting power.

The judge agreed in the preliminary injunction that the plaintiffs will likely be able to prove racial gerrymandering took place. The court found evidence supporting that “race was the predominant motivating factor” behind the map, according to the order.

The Georgia General Assembly has until Jan. 10 to adopt a new map, according to the order, and the plaintiffs and defendants have until Jan. 12 to file any objections to the new map. The judge will then oversee any remediation that needs to take place to settle on a map.

The redrawn map will stay in place through the resolution of the case, which will proceed as normal. The voting rights groups will still have to prove the maps are unconstitutional. If they do, the judge could make the preliminary map permanent, or establish a new one.

Lawmakers earlier this month adopted new maps for Georgia’s congressional and General Assembly seats, after a judge found the previous boundaries illegally weakened Black voting power and violated federal law.

The school district was not originally named in the redistricting lawsuit, but joined the case as an intervenor in an effort to defend the maps. A judge in July ruled that it is not liable in the case. The school district has repeatedly affirmed its intent to continue in the lawsuit, and asked the judge to sanction the plaintiffs for the “wholesale absence of legal grounds” to support their claims. The judge denied that motion in its recent order.

The school district has spent more than $1 million on the lawsuit, records reviewed by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution showed.

The last Cobb school board election in 2022 took place under the disputed map. Becky Sayler was elected to the Post 2 seat, David Chastain was reelected to the Post 4 seat and Nichelle Davis was elected to the Post 6 seat. The judge’s order only applies to future elections, not ones that have already taken place.

Four Cobb school board members are currently serving terms that end in 2024: Randy Scamihorn in Post 1, Leroy “Tre’” Hutchins in Post 3, David Banks in Post 5, and Brad Wheeler in Post 7. None of the incumbents have registered their intent to run in next year’s election yet, according to the state’s filing system. Two new candidates have filed to run for the Post 5 seat, and one is running for the Post 1 seat.