The committee that is traveling the state to get public input on redrawing political districts for Georgia is being criticized for not being sensitive to language barriers and not having a sign-language interpreter at their meeting in Dalton recently.

It’s estimated that around 1.5 million Georgia residents don’t use English as their primary language.  Dalton and Whitfield County, where the only meeting of the redistricting committee was held in Northwest Georgia, has a Latino population of around 46%.  Also, there was no ASL interpreter at the meeting for hearing-impaired residents.

According to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, state committee meetings never use second-language interpreters in their committee meetings.

The redistricting committee is expected to wrap-up their hearing later this summer and present a redistricting plan to the General Assembly this fall.