According to the new law, the General Assembly will elect a non-partisan chairman who heads the board for state elections.
ATLANTA – Two provisions of the Georgian re-election law cause political experts to raise an eyebrow.
One of the provisions removes the Secretary of State as chairman of the State Elections Board and the other allows the State Board to adopt local electoral systems that are “below par”.
According to the new law, the General Assembly will elect a non-partisan chairman who heads the board for state elections.
Dr. Andra Gillespie, a professor of political science at Emory University, said this could potentially be problematic.
“Because they are appointed by a body elected by partisans, it suggests that they feel a certain amount of accountability to the General Assembly, unlike the people of Georgia,” said Dr. Gillespie.
She said this is something critics might be concerned about if the state board can fairly adopt a local electoral system.
The law does not name specific districts when outlining the state’s ability to adopt local systems, but it does generally speak of districts with long-term problems such as lines and postal ballot processing.
Critics suspect these provisions target Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold in Georgia that struggled during the primaries last June.
RELATED: Georgia Electoral Law Explains: Here’s What the Law Does, Doesn’t Do
“They set guidelines that if you have had multiple election cycles that have been problematic it could be a reason to take over and that seems pretty tailored to the multi-year problems Fulton County had in reporting elections “, she said.
GOP strategist Brian Robinson is a strong supporter of SB 202 and said, if anything, a state takeover will help all voters.
“If counties constantly have a problem with long lines and slow service at the polling station, this needs to be addressed as it actually means the suppression of votes,” he said. “If the counties can’t fix it, the state has to step in and do the right thing.”
However, he does not agree to remove the Secretary of State as chairman of the State Board of Elections.
“If we are to say that the Georgians have the vote to determine who will be the Secretary of State and that person can hold our elections, then we are authorizing that person to hold our elections, so I just disagree with that decision. I think it’s myopic, ”he said.
RELATED: Georgian Legislature faces no indictment after arrest while protesting the bill
Dr. Gillespie said it might have helped if the law had limited the length of the chair’s tenure.
“Part of that could be mitigated if the CEO were appointed for a term that doesn’t look like a legislature or governor term, like a five or ten year term,” she said.
