Behind covered windows and signs reading “do not enter,” after public hearings and private bipartisan meetings, two groups of Republican state legislators have finished the draft maps that lay out new districts for the state House of Representatives and state Senate.

They propose a third Bibb County senator, which would firmly put the legislative decision about a Macon-Bibb County merger in Republican hands.

But the overall trend in Bibb and bordering counties is districts getting geographically bigger as state population shifts north.

On Monday, those two maps, and soon one for the U.S. House, go up for debate in the whole state Legislature and eventual vetting by the federal government.

State House

New House districts each will need a population of 53,820 people, up from about 45,000 now, under the new U.S. Census Bureau numbers that trigger a redistricting every 10 years.

“I knew I had a population deficit,” said Rep. Nikki Randall, D-Macon. Her neighborhood district border is preliminarily sketched to move southward. The Macon district served by Rep. Allen Peake, R-Macon, is drafted to expand toward Monroe County. He said he thinks that’s a good fit as he lives near the border anyway. And Rep. Bubber Epps, R-Dry Branch, would run in a district that’s proposed to shift eastward, out of some of Bibb County and into heavily rural Bleckley and Laurens counties.

Epps said he’s “comfortable with the map,” but wouldn’t say he feels safe, as “we all have to realize we’re accountable to the people.”

Between 2000 and 2010, Georgia’s population grew about 18 percent, while the figure for Bibb and its adjacent counties rose by about 12 percent.

Houston County saw a 26 percent population growth, thus it gets more representation. House Majority Leader Larry O’Neal, R-Warner Robins, will run in a district contracted westward, lopping off some of central Houston.

The draft map cuts down to five the number of House members who represent Macon and Bibb and who matter in local bills, such as the proposal to unite Macon and Bibb’s governments. The delegation would remain majority Republican.

But because the House already passed a consolidation plan earlier this year, the question lies more with the Senate. And the draft map makes a major power shift in Bibb’s state Senate delegation.

State Senate

Under the draft map, Bibb County would get a third state senator as a heavily rural, white, GOP-held seat now held by Sen. Johnny Grant, R-Milledgeville, expands southward.

That would presumably give Republicans a 2-1 majority in the Bibb County Senate delegation, which is now split 1-1. By majority vote, they must approve any plan to consolidate Macon and Bibb County. The incumbents earlier this year crossed the aisle on a merger plan, but a third senator changes the dynamic.

“I think it is probably a good thing,” said Peake, author of the House consolidation bill. A third senator will “make sure we don’t have the gridlock we have had in the past.”

Any merger plan must be first approved by the state Legislature, then by Bibb County voters.

But as debate begins on the map, one of Macon’s seats at the Senate table will be empty. An Aug. 16 special election will decide whether former Macon City Council President Miriam Paris or former state Rep. David Lucas will join the Senate. But the swearing-in can’t happen until the statutory time passes for settling provisional ballots and handling any challenges, according to a spokesman with the Secretary of State’s Office. Thus the new senator can pull up a chair no earlier than Aug. 22.

The two existing state Senate seats representing Bibb County would expand into rural areas to reach a total population of 172,994 people.

Rules

As members of the Legislature set to work, they must remember one key law and probably some common principles.

New maps must first nearly exactly equalize the number of people in each district, said Charles Bullock, a University of Georgia political science professor. He expects federal overseers will accept no more than a 2 percent variation, and only then if most districts are tighter.

Next, districts “cannot make conditions worse for minorities,” he said. That’s a result of the federal Voting Rights Act, which specifies that no districts can have a discriminatory motive or effect. It applies to most of the former Confederacy and other places that have a history of trying to split and dilute minority voting power. In Georgia, that nearly always refers to the black vote.

The maps need “at least the same number of majority black districts,” he said. Partywise, it takes about 55 percent of likely voters, or voters who turned out for the previous election, to make a seat “safe,” Bullock said.

The GOP-controlled committees that are drawing the maps have also pledged to minimize county splits. The proposed third state Senate district for Bibb seems to be an exception. But Bullock cautioned that voters like more compact districts.

Under the Voting Rights Act, the maps can go through the federal Department of Justice or through a Washington federal court. Gov. Nathan Deal and Attorney General Sam Olens will decide which they’ll try.

State Sen. Mitch Seabaugh, R-Sharpsburg, who runs the Senate drawing committee, said he would like federal approval in time for qualifying for the 2012 elections. If, however, Georgia’s maps fail, he said, the federal court will draw maps for 2012. The Legislature then would have a chance to redraw and try again after the 2012 vote.

Congress

The Legislature also must map a new U.S. House seat based on census numbers that would squeeze seat number 14 somewhere in the heavily GOP north side of metro Atlanta.

That draft map is traditionally handled after the state House and Senate, Seabaugh said. In the past, a member of the redistricting committee has introduced the congressional draft map once the special session begins.

But while the Republican majority at the state Capitol has its pencil out, it could try to reach for another new GOP seat by shifting the borders of the Democrat-held district that covers much of Baldwin County. It’s Rep. John Barrow who may have a target on his back. He is white and the racial split in his district is not great, so fiddling with his seat is less likely to meet federal opposition, Bullock suggested, than going after an black lawmaker or a majority-minority district. As for metro Macon, Bullock predicted that the Legislature may draw the two other mid-Georgia districts safer for their incumbents -- one Republican, one Democrat.

Bibb, Monroe and Houston counties and points east are in Georgia’s 8th Congressional District held by Republican Austin Scott. Crawford and Peach join the southwest Georgia 2nd Congressional District of Democrat Sanford Bishop.

Bullock thinks there’s a chance Bibb will be shifted into the southwest Georgia seat, turning Bishop’s more safely Democratic. Presumably in return, Scott’s district would gain some safe GOP territory.

And U.S. House districts must be absolutely equal: each one must serve 694,826 people, plus or minus one person only.

This summer, the Legislature will only redraw their own districts and the U.S. House districts. There is no end date set yet for the session, nor is there a date set for publishing the draft U.S. House map. In January 2012, during the regular session, legislators will redraw city, county and board of education districts plus the seats for the Public Service Commission, Georgia’s utilities regulator.