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[Newsboy]

Originally Posted by Albania67

But couldnt they change the county seats in this day and age when a certain city outgrow another city in a county?

Bless your heart! Do a little research on the history of Georgia and it's counties and you'll understand ... here it is in a nutshell:

"In Georgia, unlike most states with large cities, the county is still the center of political and cultural life for a majority of the state's citizens. Counties carry out locally a variety of state programs and policies, including collecting taxes, overseeing elections, conducting courts of law, filing official records, maintaining roads, and providing for the welfare of citizens.

Only Texas, which is considerably larger in area, has more counties than Georgia has. According to anecdotal history, Georgia established enough counties so that a farmer traveling by mule-drawn buggy could go to the county seat, take care of business, and return to his farm in the same day.

Politically, it served Georgians, the majority of whom lived on farms in rural areas, to have smaller counties. Each county has at least one representative in the General Assembly, the state's governing body. Moreover, many towns wanted to be a county seat, the location of the courthouse and jail and the center of local political activities, social gatherings, and trade. Having a large number of counties gave Georgians more representation in state government and more business in towns."

History of Georgia Counties

[DanielAvery]

When given the power to re-draw political boundaries on their own, politicians have shown they have no shame. Gerrymandered congressional districts are the stuff of legends. As for merging some counties, you would essentially be asking small-town politicians to vote themselves out of their jobs, which would be a tall order.

I remember in junior high I had a Georgia History teacher who gave us all a map of Georgia with all the counties outlined on it. She told us she would give us twenty bonus points on an exam if we could label all the counties. Nobody completed it, but I missed by less than ten of them and she gave me five points for the hell of it.