Cobb County resident Steven Lang was ready to run for the Georgia House when he went to the Capitol last week, paid a $400 fee and prepared to launch his campaign.
But Lang later found out he had qualified to run under an outdated House district map. He learned from a Facebook post by his would-be Republican rival, state Rep. Ginny Ehrhart, that he doesn’t actually live in district he wanted to represent.
Lang is now in jeopardy of being disqualified because state law requires candidates to live in their state legislative districts.
Cobb County has not yet updated voter registration for the district maps that changed due to litigation last year, including the state House and Senate maps, the county school board map, and the county commission map. So when Lang checked his My Voter Page to determine his district, the information was outdated.
The delay, largely a result of the ongoing dispute over Cobb County’s commission map pending before the Georgia Supreme Court, has caused widespread confusion and frustration during qualifying week for some state and county-level candidates in Cobb.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger criticized Cobb for using the district map drawn by the Cobb County Commission rather than the one passed by the Georgia General Assembly. A judge ruled that the county’s commission district map was unconstitutional in January, and an appeal is pending with the Georgia Supreme Court, which has scheduled oral arguments for April.
“We urge them to update their maps immediately as we have now done for weeks,” said Mike Hassinger, a spokesman for the Secretary of State’s office. “This is a clear political power grab by this commission that now has real negative consequences on their elections office. Highly irresponsible. Instead of trying to pass the buck, Cobb should just get their redistricting done correctly as soon as possible.”
While the commission map lawsuit is still pending, Cobb Elections Director Tate Fall said the Secretary of State’s guidance was to complete redistricting in the system once all of the maps were finalized, and state officials didn’t tell her to move forward without the county commission map until days before qualifying began.
“My staff and I would never disregard direction from the Secretary of State,” Fall said. “If we were told to do something, we would have done it.”
Redistricting, a process state lawmakers undertake to ensure district maps are updated with population changes, has always been highly political in Georgia. But the latest round of redistricting has risen to a new level of partisan conflict, particularly in Cobb County, where every electoral map faced litigation at one point last year.
Daniel White, the Cobb County Board of Elections’ attorney, said the board worked with the Secretary of State’s office on how to approach redistricting with one map still in litigation and followed their instruction.
“My board doesn’t really have a preference over which set of maps apply. We’re just trying to follow the law,” White said. “The idea that this is just all on Cobb County and we hadn’t wanted to implement the maps — that’s not it.”
Lang said he’s a victim of redistricting, which put him into a different state House district from Ehrhart late last year. But because Cobb County election officials haven’t yet updated his registration to reflect his new district, Lang and many other Cobb residents are still registered to vote under the old maps.
“When I went to the My Voter Page, I was assuming that the information was correct,” Lang said.
Another potential Democratic challenger for the state House District 36, James Ryner, also filed to run even though he doesn’t live within the district’s boundaries. He, too, could be disqualified.
“If you think you’re fit to serve the public and want to represent the citizens of West Cobb, you ought to know what the district lines are,” said Ehrhart, who would be left without an opponent for reelection. “They can look at the map. It’s a simple Google search. This is not rocket science.”
The Democratic Party of Georgia qualified Lang last week even though he doesn’t live in the district for which he is running. Democratic Party spokeswoman Ellie Schwartz said it’s the candidates’ job to know which district they live in, and the party doesn’t check addresses before qualifying a candidate.
Lang said the party checked his voter registration information to confirm he lived in the district, and because the website was outdated, he was qualified incorrectly. He has now asked the party to refund his $400 qualifying fee.
The Cobb County GOP qualified candidate Alicia Adams to run in the District 2 race, but her address falls in District 3 under the current county map. A challenge to Adams’ qualification is scheduled for Friday with the Board of Elections.
