There are some changes coming to the Columbia County Board of Elections.
During its meeting on Tuesday, March 7, the Columbia County Board of Commissioners approved Resolution 23-08, which asks the state legislative delegation to submit legislation to the 2023 Georgia General Assembly to amend the composition of the Board of Elections. The changes are needed to stay in compliance with Delay v. Sutton, where the Supreme Court of Georgia ruled that private organizations cannot appoint public officials to the Board of Ethics in DeKalb County.
“Under our current structure we violate a law upheld by the Supreme Court of Georgia, so we had to change the structure,” said BOC Chairman Doug Duncan. “So we had to change the structure, we had to change the way folks are appointed. Once we were made aware, we’re not going to be in violation.”
According to the proposed legislation, the Board of Elections will be made up of three members who are appointed by the Columbia County Board of Commissioners. When it comes to choosing members, the act states the political party whose candidate for governor in the last election received the most votes and the political party in the last governor election whose candidate received the second highest amount of votes will each recommend three candidates to the Columbia County Board of Commissioners. This means that six total candidates will be presented to the Board of Commissioners, most likely three from the Republican Party and three from the Democratic Party.
The commissioners will select one recommendation from each party (two people total) to serve on the board. The third member of the Board of Elections will be appointed by the Board of Commissioners and serve as the chair.
Previously, the Board of Elections members had one member from the political party who received the highest number of votes in the county for president, one member from the political party who received the second highest number of votes in the county for president, and the third member was appointed by the two political party members.
Parin Amin spoke out against the changes, stating there was a lack of transparency from the Board of Commissioners regarding the resolution.
“As you know at the last meeting you pulled this meeting right before the start of the meeting,” Amin said. “You added it to the agenda, nobody knew about it being added to this agenda until last night. No party was informed, nobody. We happened to get a call from a commissioner saying we’re going to add this. You guys put it on here and you’re ready to pass it without any community input or due diligence on our side.”
The second issue Amin had was how the Board of Elections chair will be appointed by the Board of Commissioners.
“Currently it’s a nonpartisan position. By taking this away from the current way it’s appointed and giving the power to y’all, it gives you the potential for partisan appointment for the Board of Elections… this opportunity that is presented in front of you, if you don’t act on this resolution in front of you, you have an opportunity to form a better resolution with transparency and due diligence and you can either leave intact the current board the way it is or take advantage of this opportunity to get a better board that would work for the rest of the state.”
County Manager Scott Johnson said the resolution will be presented to the legislative delegation and they don’t have to accept it.
“The delegation is not compelled by law to accept this resolution,” Johnson said. “I have no reason to believe they will not do that, but I think it’s important for everybody to understand, should the delegation decide they want to drop legislation on this matter on their own without any guidance from this board or any guidance from this community, it’s certainly within their right to do that. We have been in contact with them, we have forward this (resolution) to our local delegation. I do believe they are okay with the language that the board is asking for.”
Board member Connie Melear stated she initially had concerns about the resolution, but the legislative delegation made it clear to board members the Delay v. Sutton decision applies to Columbia County.
“If we don’t do something about it, the delegation will do something for us and we would rather have that decision of how this is set up made on this local level with our control over it than having somebody in Atlanta tell us how it’s going to be,” Melear said. “By giving the parties choices, I feel like this is, I would rather have not done anything, but it is imperative that we do something, and I feel like this is a good compromise.”
Duncan added during the meeting there is no reason the county can’t reappoint the current board members, Ann Cushman (non-partisan representative), Wanda Duffie (Republican Party representative) and Larry Wiggins (Democratic Party representative).
The legislation will be go into effect once it’s approved by Governor Brian Kemp or if it becomes a law without such approval.
