Beginning in January, Gilmer County will have an election board.
A local bill passed the Georgia Legislature in April and was signed by Gov. Brian Kemp in May to create the board and move the supervision of elections away from the probate judge.
“Every county is going to be required to have an election board,” said Gilmer County Chair Charlie Paris. “We got ahead of the curve.”
For several years, the creation of a local election board was a topic of discussion between Gilmer County Probate Judge Scott Chastain and the Gilmer County Board of Commissioners.
Gilmer County was one of less than 30 counties in the state which had an election superintendent instead of an election board.
Chastain argued the duties of elections, along with the proliferation of primaries, general elections, run-offs and special elections, was becoming a full-time job in itself.
Paris said he was opposed to the idea. Then a bill was introduced in the legislature to mandate all counties have an election board.
“They were specifying what the board would look like,” Paris said. “We would rather have our own version.”
Counties which already had an election board were not affected by the law. Because the governor signed the bill creating Gilmer County’s board before the main law, the county created board stands.
Wording in the Gilmer County law specifies a five-member board with at least one member from the party which received a majority of votes for the governor’s seat and one seat for the party which received the second highest total.
This will result in at least one Republican member and one Democrat member.
During discussions before the board was created, Paris said he thought the board should reflect the voting percentages of the county which means the majority of the board will be Republican.
“Ideally it will be based on the percentage of Democrat nominee votes versus Republican nominee votes in Gilmer County,” he said. “In the future, there may be more than one Democrat.”
Commissioners began advertising for prospective board members to throw their hats in the ring this week. The deadline for people to enter their names is the end of September.
Paris said they would like for members to be regular voters who have been involved in elections and the community, but there are no set requirements.
“I would think we would be able to select a board at the October meeting,” he said.
An election supervisor will be appointed at the same time. Paris said he believes it will be current Chief Registrar Tammy Watkins.
“I can’t imagine that it will not be Tammy,” he said.