AUGUSTA, Ga. (WJBF)- A federal judge has ruled that Georgia’s congressional and state legislative districts must be redrawn before the 2024 election.

U.S District Judge Steve Jones says the current voting map drawn by republican lawmakers violates the federal voting rights act. he’s now ordering the state to draw an additional black-majority congressional district.

“We are surprised in the victory but we are very ,very happy because justice should be done and if we follow the rules in which we set in Georgia legislator the district’s would have been drawn different,”said Brian Prince, Georgia House of Representatives District 132.

Rep. Brian Prince, from house district 132, which includes Augusta, says things will look a little different.

“Main thing is how many seats in the house of representatives does the state of Georgia get, based on population… we got 14 so how do you divide that 14 up across the state is what we’re going to be looking at.”

This court order will affect the way people vote.

“I’m in house district 132 i take up parts of Richmond County and all of Jefferson County there’s a possibility that once we redraw the lines, my population could be all of Richmond County and, I’m just using a hypothetical, none of Richmond county.”

But the redistricting would not affect voters here in the CSRA.

“What I’m hearing and what I’m seeing in writing is a lot of it is going to be the Atlanta area and few pieces in Macon, Bibb county area is where the focus is.”