The Clarke County Legislative delegation should be proud of one thing: they are making history. Not happy history, for sure, but history nevertheless.

Electoins experts in Georgia and around the country say they have never heard of state lawmakers overriding local preferences for voting districts and submitting their own map without public input. But that seems to be what's going to happen in the next few days.

The five-member delegation can't reach consensus about Athens's plan to have eight districts and two at large districts. Some members have been frustated by other members' recalcitrance.

"It's abundantly clear what the community would desire," said Republican Chuck Williams of Oconee County. "If I had my wishes, I would have already sent the map through the General Assembly, but I don't. We have to agree."

Republican State Senator Frank Ginn says he feels confident the delegation will come to an agreement on Athens’ commission districts.

He had hoped the local government would accept having a March 6 referendum on the issue, because he believes that would have kept the local plan “in play, at least.”

The $64,000 referendum would let voters choose the local government's 10-district plan or a 9-district plan, with district lines following those of the Clarke County School Board. Timing was a problem with a March referendum, local officials said, but there's no problem with holding a referendum later in the year.

“Frankly, I have never heard of something like this happening in Georgia,” said University of Georgia political science professor Chuck Bullock.

By “this,” he meant a situation in which the legislative delegation rejected a local government’s redistricting plan, preferring to submit its own plan and map with no input from local citizens.

“Somewhere, someone may have done this, but I’ve never heard of it,” said Bullock, an expert on redistricting in Georgia.

Some members of Athens Clarke County’s legislative delegation, including Ginn, have repeatedly said that if they don’t come to some agreement, or devise a their own plan, “the courts” will draw the commission districts.

Bullock says that even now, a local citizen could file suit in federal court, naming both the legislators and Athens Clarke County as defendants. The suit might argue that the redistricting process isn’t moving forward, and a federal judge could compel the defendants “to do something” or could take control him-or-her-self. He or she could choose to adopt the plan submitted by the local government. Or not, in which case the judge might decide to draw the districts.

Once a plan—with eight, nine or ten districts, with or without superdistricts—is finally okayed by the General Assembly and governor, it then has to be approved by federal Department of Justice officials. This requirement is because Georgia, along with other Southern states, has a history of racial discrimination against minority voters. Any change affecting voting must be approved by the Department of Justice.

The state could send the plan to the DOJ for an administrative review, which can take 60 days. Federal officials will make sure the new plan doesn’t leave minority voters worse off than they were under the old plan. There is no cost to the county for a DOJ administrative review.

Or, said Bullock, the plan could go to a three-judge panel at U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., for a judicial review and declaratory judgment. This process is faster, as well as costlier, than the administrative review. What isn't clear is who would pay the legal fees, the state or the local government.

However, having a plan federally approved won’t necessarily mean that Athens Clarke County is out of the woods, Bullock said, because approval doesn’t guarantee protection from litigation. Attorneys Ken Dious and John Clarke said during last summer's reapportionment hearings they intend to file suit over the superdistricts, which they believe dilute minority voting strength.

Two of the ten commission districts in Athens Clarke County are minority majority districts.

“The question would be ‘Can you draw a third majority minority district based on residents of adult voting age?’” Bullock said. “That may not be possible with eight districts, but with nine or ten, it might be possible, who knows?”