UPDATE: “Due to a number of issues, we weren’t able to get this bill over the finish line this session,” state Rep. Houston Gaines (R-Athens) told Flagpole. “We will be having a discussion this fall on how to address the legal and policy issues with the current makeup of the board, and plan to revisit the matter next session.”
Mayor Kelly Girtz, who added an item to the Athens-Clarke County Commission’s Tuesday meeting expressing opposition to the bill, said he’s glad it was tabled. “The Georgia legislature is an interesting beast, and sometimes in the closing days [of the session] they get over their skis,” he said.
ORIGINAL STORY: Three Republicans who represent Athens in the Georgia House of Representatives have introduced a bill taking away the Athens-Clarke County Commission’s ability to appoint a majority of the members of the local Board of Elections.
Currently, the local Democratic and Republican parties each appoint one member, and the county commission appoints three. Though technically nonpartisan, the commission is made up of all or mostly Democrats, and so its appointees tend to lean left.
Under House Bill 581—sponsored by Reps. Houston Gaines (R-Athens), Trey Rhodes (R-Greensboro) and Marcus Wiedower (R-Watkinsville)—the commission would be forced to select those three appointees from among a list of eight recommendations, two from each of the four judges on the Western Judicial Circuit. A related bill would abolish the current Board of Elections effective June 30.
According to BOE Chairman Rocky Raffle, ACC officials did not request the bill. He said several commissioners were caught off-guard when he called them about it. On Monday, the mayor and commission scheduled a special called session for Tuesday to vote on a resolution to maintain the composition of the board of elections.
Although Superior Court judges are also elected, Gaines told Flagpole that the new process would create a layer between elected officials—the mayor and commission—and those running local elections. He also said having judges recommend candidates would remove some of the partisanship. (Like judges, the mayor and commission are technically nonpartisan.)
Gaines also referenced a 2020 incident where the BOE spent $41,000 in taxpayer money on attorney’s fees without the mayor and commission’s permission in an effort to switch to hand-marked paper ballots in defiance of state law. The chair and vice chair at the time were removed soon after. In addition, last year the ACC Elections and Voter Registration Department accidentally sent several hundred voters duplicate absentee ballots; staff assured the board that failsafes were in place to ensure no one was able vote twice.
One elections board member, Adam Shirley, a Democrat who is one of the commission’s nonpartisan appointees, sent the legislators a letter outlining his opposition to the bill. He said it’s unnecessary, given that Athens-Clarke County has had no major issues with running its elections, and that it would interfere with preparations for upcoming elections. He also questioned whether it’s the best use of judges’ time to have to recommend board members every two years, and argued that the new procedure would give Oconee County voters influence over who runs Clarke County elections because the Western Circuit includes both counties.
The Oconee County Commission has a similar process to Athens-Clarke County’s current procedure for naming its board of election members—one is nominated by each party, and three more are selected by the commission, according to Lee Becker at Oconee County Observations. But Gaines and Wiedower, who also represent portions of Oconee County, have not filed a bill to change the makeup of the Oconee BOE.
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