Polk County was not divided in either of the Georgia House or Senate District voting maps drawn by a federal district court that were released Monday.

In the House, Polk will be part of District 19 which includes all of Polk and the southern portion of Floyd County from the Alabama line to the Bartow county line.

In the senate, Polk will be part of District 31 which includes all of Polk and Haralson counties and portions of Paulding and Bartow counties.

More than half of Paulding County and about a third of Bartow County are included in District 31.

Rep. Bill Cummings, Democrat of Rockmart, who currently represents Polk in the House of Representatives, said Monday he had not had time to study the new districts, but would be happy to represent the southern partion of Floyd County or anyone in northwest Georgia. The southern edge of Floyd County, including Cave Spring, is in the Polk County district held by Rep. Cummings.

Cummings was happy that Polk County was not divided in the newly drawn maps.

The most recent District 19 included most of Polk County except the southwest portion of the county and a portion of western Bartow County.

In the new map, Rep. Bill Heath, Republican of Bremen, would not represent any of Polk County, as he did under the previous District 18, which included the southwest corner of the county.

The most recent District 31 of the Senate included all of Polk and Haralson counties, most of Paulding and the southern portion of Bartow.

The newly drawn Senate District map should give Paulding and Bartow counties more influence in determining who the senate seat goes to in the upcoming elections.

State Sen. Nathan Dean, Democrat of Rockmart, could not be reached for comment as of early Tuesday.

Polk County fared much better than its neighbor Floyd County which was divided into four house districts.

The residences of both state Rep. E.M. “Buddy” Childers, D-Floyd County, and state Rep. Paul Smith, D-Rome, are in the map’s District 13A, which means the two would be opponents in the Democratic primary.

Likewise, in Catoosa County, Republican incumbents Ron Forster of Ringgold and Roger Williams of Dalton were drawn into the same district.

Legislators must live in their districts for at least a year and qualifying runs from April 26 through April 30, so moving is not an option.

Smith said the new district lines don’t change his plans to run for re-election, and Childers said he also expects to run, although he has not made a final decision yet.

“That part doesn’t bother me,” Childers said. “The people of Floyd County can just choose between us. What bothers me is what they did to the rest of the county.”

Republican Mike Ragland, who had planned to challenge Smith in November under the current district lines, lives in Cave Spring. Ragland, a Rome police officer, could not be reached for comment Monday afternoon.

The district held by state Rep. Barbara Massey Reece, D-Menlo, covers roughly equal areas of Chattooga and Floyd counties.

Reece said about 300 people in the city of Rome would no longer be in her district.

No incumbent lives in the fourth district, which covers most of Bartow County and an eastern chunk of Floyd County.

“It’s good for the city of Rome, which I’ve always said should have its own district,” Smith said about the map. “But Floyd County is cut up and mixed with so many other counties when (the population) is exactly right for two districts.”

Under the Senate map, the whole of Floyd County makes up the bulk of the 52nd District held by state Sen. Preston Smith, R-Rome. Parts of Bartow and Gordon counties are still in the district, but Chattooga, Walker and Whitfield counties are out.

“The special master proposed a map that definitely complies with the court’s order,” Smith said. “In some ways it’s very similar to the map the Senate passed, with a (district population) deviation of about 1 percent.”