Stephens County Receives List of Eligible Voters for HD28 April Election

On Friday, candidates for the State House District 28 Representative race are scheduled to receive the lists of eligible voters for the upcoming April Special Election.

The Boards of Elections and Registrars in all three counties have received their Eligible Elector Lists from the Secretary of State’s office and will submit them to candidates Dan Gasaway and Chris Erwin and their attorneys for review.

Gasaway had argued in a second lawsuit that there were multiple illegal or improper ballots cast in Banks and Habersham counties in the December 4 Special Primary Election.

His challenger, Chris Erwin, won that race by just two votes and was sworn into office on January 14.

However, Judge Sweat ruled four ballots cast in that election were illegal, enough for him to throw that election out, call for a third special election, and order Erwin to step down from office.

Stephens County Registrar Eureka Gober says she received her voter list from the Secretary of State’s office on Tuesday and it is large.

“It is long; over 900 pages. This is for Stephens County only, and Banks and Habersham has their own. They received their lists Tuesday also. The lists were put together by the Secretary of State’s office,” she said.

Absentee by Mail and Early Voting will begin at the Stephens County Registrar’s office Monday, March 18, from 8am-5pm and continue through Friday April 5th.

Saturday Voting will be March 30, from 9am-4pm at the Registrar’s office.

Gober said when voting begins, she will have to check to see if voters coming to cast a ballot are on the approved Eligible Elector list.

She says, however, Stephens County voters can check now to see if they will be eligible to vote in April.

“We can pull them up and we can see if they are registered and eligible to vote,” she said. “We can also check if they moved out of the county or moved into our county. For this election they must have been registered to vote by April, 2018.”

In his written order, Judge Sweat also ruled only those voters who did not vote Democrat in the May race, and who had not moved out of the District since or become ineligible to vote since May could cast a ballot on April 9.

Stephens, Banks, and Habersham Counties have joined an appeal to the Judge’s ruling submitted by Erwin’s attorneys on February 14 questioning the legality of the voter lists.

“The County’s issue is not in the outcome of the April election as long as the process is fair and conducted in accordance with state and federal law,” Stephens County Attorney Brian Ranck said in a prepared statement. “Stephens County feels an appeal is necessary to get clarity on the law that governs elections in Georgia and to insure that the ruling does not impose requirements on local elections offices beyond those prescribed by statute.”

“The appeals by the county election boards are perplexing as they did not offer any legal arguments or tender a single exhibit at trial,” Gasaway said Monday. “What error that they allege Judge Sweat made as to an argument or exhibit offered by them is unknown. Given an appeal could delay the Representative selected by the HD 28 voters, I hope that their appeals were carefully considered.”

Gasaway, Erwin and their attorneys will have until Wednesday, March 6 at 5p to file any and all objections to the Elector lists.

Following that, the Boards of Elections and Registrars in all three counties have until March 11 to meet to consider and decide upon any objection to those lists.  However, the Judge also ruled that any voter for whom an objection is raised that is included in the Approved Eligible Electors List shall be permitted to submit a provisional ballot and their eligibility shall be examined in accordance with the Georgia Election Code.