The outline that State House District 121 Rep. Eric Gisler gave on Saturday for the upcoming special session of the Georgia General Assembly, set to begin on Wednesday, was very sparse on details, as Gisler readily admitted.
Gov. Brian Kemp has asked the legislature to “consider” changing the district maps for Congress and the Georgia Senate and House, but Gisler said, as a member of the Democratic minority, he hasn’t seen any maps or been given any insights about what the Republicans will propose.
Gov. Kemp also has asked the legislature to “address issues created” by the legislature in 2024 when it set a deadline of July 1, 2026, for removing the QR Code from the Georgia ballot, but Gisler said he doesn’t know what the majority Republican Party plans to offer.
The governor also asked the General Assembly to enact legislation that would allow local governments to put a Local Homestead Option Sales Tax (LHOST) on the ballot as early as November, but Gisler said he has not been asked by either Oconee or Clarke counties, which make up his District, to pass such a local bill.
The General Assembly, according to the Governor’s proclamation calling the special session, is being asked “to ratify” the Governor’s executive order of May 15 of this year suspending the gas tax from May 20 to June 2.
Gisler said he didn’t have any idea what would happen if the legislature didn’t ratify something that has already taken place.
Finally, the Governor asked the Senate “to consider and confirm various appointments” he had made since the adjournment of the regular session of the General Assembly on April 3. Gisler is in the House, and he said he doesn’t see the House playing any role in responding to this call.
Gisler’s Town Hall meeting at the Community Center in Oconee Veteran’s Park lasted just more than an hour, and much of it was a back and forth with Gisler and the 25 people present about the uncertainty over what will happen come Wednesday.
QR Code
“We're going back into session here on Wednesday,” Gisler said in opening the session at 4 p.m. on Saturday. The Town Hall was one of at least four he has held since being elected in a special election last December.
“They called for a special session, and so this is really an opportunity, as your representative, I want to hear from you before we go in there,” Gisler said.
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| Gisler 6/13/2026 |
Gisler then went through each of the five items on the call for a Special Session, noting that the legislature itself cannot introduce bills in areas not specified in that call.
Initially, the expectation was that Gov. Kemp would call the legislature back into session simply to address the problem created two years ago when the legislature set a July 1, 2026, deadline for removing of the QR Code from the ballot that is scanned in the voting process.
The legislature never funded the mandate, and nothing has been done to implement the change.
Gisler said when he want to Atlanta in January, his top priority, after passing the budget “was this QR Code issue. We should have fixed this.”
“And in the House, we did. We wrote up our bill, and pushed it out to the Senate,” he said, “and they didn't vote on it before they adjourned.”
Gisler said there now are two options: push the effective date for removing the QR Code to the end of 2027 or the start of 2028, or reverse the law mandating removal of the QR Code.
“In the (Democratic) caucus, there are questions about which one of those ways is the best way to go,” Gisler said. “But either way, something's got to happen.”
Gisler said the uncertainty is what the Senate will do this time given its inaction early this year.
Redistricting
Gisler saved discussion of redistricting until last, saying “This is the most significant issue in the special session.”
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| Town Hall 6/13/2026 |
“The important thing to know,” Gisler said, “is that...no court has ruled that our current maps are illegal. Nobody is making us do this. There's no reason we have to go and redraw maps right now.”
In Gov. Kemp’s proclamation calling the special session, he has stipulated that any changes are “to take effect for the 2028 election cycle.” Primaries already have taken place for this fall’s election, with the runoff to be held tomorrow (June 16).
Even in light of the United States Supreme Court decision in Louisiana v. Callais, which Kemp cited, Gisler said, “nobody's challenged the Georgia maps, and nobody has told us we have to draw a new one, and there's really not any reason for us to be doing that.”
“We don't have to have partisan gerrymandering,” Gisler said, “But they (the Supreme Court) have said as long as you're not looking at race, and you call it a partisan gerrymander, you can eliminate Black representation in bodies of government.”
“And that's just fundamentally wrong,” Gisler said.
Of Georgia’s 13 members of Congress, four are Democrats, and all are Black. David Scott, also Black and a Democrat, was representing the 13th House District before he passed away earlier this year. None of the Republican members of Congress from Georgia is Black.
Republican Maps
“I think there are Republican legislators who would rather not be doing this,” Gisler said of redistricting. “They're going to be under a lot of pressure.”
“But maybe they won't do it because some of them are in competitive districts this year,” he said, “and if they're on the record voting for this partisan power grab, then, whether they're doing it intentionally or not, it is going to negatively impact Black voters, it makes an uphill battle for them even harder next year.”
“We've been meeting a few times a week over the last couple of weeks,” Gisler said, referring to his Democratic colleagues, “getting ready for this special session and figuring out a strategy.”
“I'm going to keep that close to my friends,” he said, “But people are concerned. We have no idea what to expect. We haven't seen a new map. We haven't even seen guidelines for the maps that they're going to base their maps on.”
“We really have no idea,” he added. “It's really going to depend on how far they want to go with this and what they want to do.”
Democratic Response
Gisler said he is in favor of legislation to create “an independent, and I say bipartisan, districting committee or commission.” Gisler said by independent he means “independent of the legislature.”
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| Gisler 6/13/2026 |
“We shouldn't have control over who's drawing the map,” he said.
“I have been pushing on the inside to get us to publish our own maps,” Gisler said. “From the House (Democratic) caucus, there's a lot of resistance to that,” he added.
“I'll say I don't think we're pushing hard enough in this,” he said. “I'm 100 percent on board with the caucus plan to try to resist whatever changes they may want to do. But I do wish we were pushing harder.”
“It costs--a conservative estimate--about $65,000 per day to be in session,” Gisler said. “And the Georgia taxpayer is paying that bill.”
“And we're going to be keeping a running tally,” he said. “We'll be posting that online at the House caucus Instagram account, showing how much of your tax dollars we're spending on this as we go.”
The Special Session start at 2 p.m. on Wednesday, and Gisler said the Republicans should have bills to “drop” or file that day.
If they suspend the rules, they could read those bills that same day. Otherwise, it would be the next day. And then the bills goes to committee.
It is uncertain if the Assembly will meet on Friday, Juneteenth, a state holiday, Gisler said.
“If they've got everything they want to do all buttoned up, and they've got their votes lined up, they can pass that out of the committee the next day, send it right back to the House, and this whole thing can be done in three days,” Gisler said.
Citizen Input
“They've got the votes to do it,” Gisler said of the Republican majority. “They've got the votes to pass any map they want.”
“But what I've been telling people is they should not be allowed to do it peacefully,” he added.
“So if that's what they want to do, their phone should be ringing off the hook,” he said. “Their email should be so full of emails that they can't even use it."
“And there should be people on the stairs at the Capitol steps chanting so they could hear while they're taking that vote,” he said.
“They can't be allowed to do this in peace,” Gisler said.
Video
The video below is of the entire Town Hall meeting, held in the community center at Oconee Veterans Park.
Discussion of the QR codes begins at 14:50 in the video.
Gisler began talking about redistricting at 29:52 in the video.
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