Fulton County Commissioner Joe Carn is asking a judge to reconsider the eligibility of the candidate who won his seat on June 9.
Carn filed a petition to the Fulton Superior Court on Monday claiming that Khadijah Abdur-Rahman doesn’t live in the district she ran to represent. Abdur-Rahman strongly rebuked the claim at a Board of Commissioners meeting Wednesday. She said Carn was playing politics by saying she doesn’t live at her Southwest Atlanta home.
“I’ve got 19,926 people who say I do,” she said during public comment.
That’s how many votes Abdur-Rahman received, according to unofficial vote tallies, meaning she beat Carn by 4,500 votes. The elections board is set to certify the election Friday.
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Rules require candidates to live in their district for 12 months prior to the election.
Abdur-Rahman filed to run for the District 6 seat in March. She said she was living at a home on Cativo Drive, which is in District 6. But the suit Carn filed alleges that she lives at another home, on Linkwood Road in District 4, and that house has a homestead exemption.
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The exemption reduces the amount of taxes someone has to pay on a home. "The home must be your legal residence for all purposes including the registration of your vehicles and the filing of your Federal and Georgia income tax returns," according to the Fulton tax assessors website.
During public comment on Wednesday, Abdur-Rahman said all her information was registered to the Cativo Drive house.
Abdur-Rahman and Carn were two of the nine people who ran less than a year ago to fill the seat left open by the death of longtime county commissioner Emma Darnell. Abdur-Rahman didn't make the runoff last time, and Carn was sworn into office on Oct. 21, 2019.
Fulton’s director of registration and elections Richard Barron was also named in the suit because of his official role running elections. County staff said Barron was in court Thursday regarding the case.
The case’s next court date was not listed on the Superior Court website Thursday evening.
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