Unlike Senate Republicans, who recently blocked two historic voting rights bills, a federal judge in Georgia believes that Black and brown Americans have as much right to vote as white Americans, and he’s willing to hold up the primaries to make sure that happens. 

“I could change the whole calendar,” U.S. District Judge Steve Jones said in court Wednesday, indicating that he may put the midterms off the schedule to consider the three lawsuits alleging gerrymandered maps that discriminate against Black voters and are in violation of the Voting Rights Act of 1965 (VRA). “I need to hear all the evidence before I make a decision,” Jones said. 

Jones could very well delay the primaries until June or July, if he rules that the state’s new Republican-drawn maps illegally weaken the representation of Black voters.

The latest Census data shows Georgia’s Black population has grown by nearly 16% in the last decade, making up a third of Georgia’s 10.7 million residents, while the number of white Georgians has dropped—meaning the state is on track to be majority nonwhite in the near future. As it stands now, the new GOP-drawn maps position Republicans to gain a seat in Congress. 

Plaintiffs in the suit are urging Jones to demand the Georgia General Assembly redraw the political maps so that they include more majority-Black districts, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (AJC). 

Attorneys for the state claim that delaying elections would cause chaos. But, AJC reports that several county election officials vouch for the plaintiffs and say the delay would give everyone involved more time to prepare for the Nov. 8 general election. 

Gerrymandering is a play Republicans live by, so it’s no big surprise it’s Gov. Brian Kemp’s move. Who cares about burgeoning crime rates or expanding Medicaid to poor Georgians? In a state with a million new potential voters since 2010 (according to the recent census), redrawing districts is the necessary power move.

Kemp quietly signed the new maps into law last December after a special legislative session, essentially codifying Republican dominance in a state that has seen a lightening-fast political and demographic shift toward Democrats.

Georgia’s current U.S. House delegation has eight Republicans and six Democrats, but the proposed drastic overhaul to the 6th and 7th districts in Atlanta’s northern suburbs could almost surely result in nine Republicans after the 2022 midterm elections.

“Rather than draw this additional congressional district to allow Georgians of color the opportunity to elect their preferred candidates, the General Assembly instead chose to ‘pack’ some Black voters in the Atlanta metropolitan area and ‘crack’ other Black voters among rural-reaching, predominantly white districts,” the filing reads.

The U.S. Supreme Court hacked another more big chunk out of the VRA Monday, allowing Alabama to implement a congressional redistricting plan a lower court had rejected. They did it again using the shadow docket, without having heard arguments, constituting a stunning blow to voting rights and one of the last remaining protections in the law against racial discrimination in voting.

Every 10 years, state lawmakers draw state legislative and congressional districts to reflect population from the census. It gives the majority party the right to retain control and the minority party the chance to fight for its seats, knowing it lacks the votes in the General Assembly to help it.

Here’s a little gerrymandering background from the History Channel:

Jones is presiding over three lawsuits claiming the Kemp gerrymandered maps in order to disenfranchise Black/Democratic voters. The complaints were filed by a variety of civil rights, religious and political groups.

The judge will rule within the next few days.