A last-minute effort is underway before the legislative session ends to change the rules that have made it hard for DeKalb County to fill its two vacant commissioner seats until November.
One in 10 DeKalb residents don’t have any representation on the commission currently, and the county’s Board of Voter Registration and Elections said this week it can’t hold a special election to fill the District 3 and 7 seats during the May general primary because what’s required under the current election rules isn’t feasible, officials said.
When the need for a special election happens less than 90 days before a planned election, officials can only hold it as a “separate and apart” election — one with separate staff, equipment and ballots.
State Rep. Saira Draper, whose district includes parts of DeKalb that are now without local representation, has proposed legislators drop that requirement for situations like the one in DeKalb. She drafted an amendment, which was unanimously approved in the Senate Ethics Committee on Thursday, that would keep the 90-day time frame for ballot questions but drop it for other special elections.
Draper said the elections board is “between a rock and a hard place” because of the difficulty of holding two elections simultaneously.
“There’s not a lot of benefit of holding a separate and apart election but there’s a lot of downside,” Draper said. “It’s crazy, there’s one in 10 DeKalb residents without representation for nine months, possibly 10 months if there’s a runoff.”
Credit: DeKalb County Department of Voter Registration and Elections
Credit: DeKalb County Department of Voter Registration and Elections
Draper’s amendment was added to House Bill 976, a bill dealing with other election issues.
It wasn’t originally scheduled for discussion, but Ethics Chairman Max Burns said he allowed the amendment out of respect to Minority Leader Gloria Butler, D-Stone Mountain. Butler gave him assurances that adding the amendment would not jeopardize support for the overall bill, he said.
Burns said he heard from many DeKalb constituents but this amendment would also benefit any county with special elections.
Special elections are needed regularly when officials resign, and the difficulty of holding separate and apart elections often results in lengthy vacancies. A seat on the Atlanta City Council will also remain vacant until the November election.
Elections board members in DeKalb said they were frustrated at waiting but didn’t see any other option. Elections Director Keisha Smith told the board they’d need to hire nearly 400 poll workers in the next few weeks to make it happen. Some poll locations aren’t large enough to accommodate two simultaneous elections.
The decision was decried by a standing-room-only crowd of residents at the meeting, many of whom had asked the board to hold it in May so they’d have representation soon.
Draper’s amendment would go into effect upon the governor’s signature. The bill could be considered by the full Senate next week.
If approved, it could open the door for DeKalb to reconsider the November date. Sample ballots for the May primary must be published April 8.
Reporter Mark Niesse contributed reporting.
