>> BALDWIN COUNTY
A new entity for the supervision of elections will be in place in Baldwin County in January of 2025, though the plan calls for no new personnel at the outset.
County commissioners voted 4-1 on Dec. 14 to request local legislation to create a board of elections, replacing the existing board of registrars. If approved, the change will not affect the 2024 election process.
District 4 commissioner Henry Craig opposed the measure, saying the method of selecting board members would be too political. Whether that split vote will affect the chances of the legislation getting introduced is unknown at this time.
Board members were told that the vote requesting local legislation for staggered terms had to be unanimous. While earlier this year two commissioners opposed that measure, they agreed to the change last week (see related story on this page).
County Attorney Brandon Palmer began the discussion last week with the aid of an outline he prepared by first noting that a three-person committee, including commissioners Johnny Westmoreland and Kendrick Butts, along with current Probate Judge/Elections Superintendent Todd Blackwell, had worked on the proposal, with his input, to get it ready to share.
Palmer first mentioned possible legislation that is pending in the Georgia General Assembly.
“Senate Bill 212 is still being contemplated to impose a board of elections (in all counties that currently do not have one). I think the board was trying to get ahead of that and trying to assemble a board of elections without the formation of the board being mandated by the state.”
Palmer pointed out that the initial members of the new board of elections will be the five currently serving on the Board of Registrars. Two will serve initially for four years, while three will serve initial six-year terms followed by subsequent four-year terms. A random drawing will determine who serves for how long initially.
Blackwell was present and went through the evolution of local elections in the past 25 years, noting that in the past there were just presidential and governor’s elections, no primaries, and no SPLOST, T-SPLOST, or E-SPLOST referendums. There was no early voting, no provisional ballots, and no absentee voting without sufficient cause.
Blackwell said a new board could not learn the election process immediately.
“To learn elections, you have to learn the whole cycle of elections. You can’t learn elections in one year or two years,” he told the commissioners. “If we’re going to try to make this as smoothly as we can, it would be simple enough to create a board of elections for the sake of creating a board of elections. But” he explained, “what we’re trying to do is create a board of elections that functions, that it continues on with the success we’ve had in the past.”
Palmer said no person holding elective public office may serve as a board member, nor can an immediate family member of an elected official.
The local political parties will make recommendations to the Board of Commissioners for the appointment of four of the five members chosen following the initial terms. The commissioners will have the final say on those four and appoint the fifth member.
The recommendations from the political parties will be submitted on a list of three to five candidates, from which the county commissioners will make the appointment.
The schedule Palmer went through calls for the appointment process to begin with nominations from the political parties due no later than August 31.
The office of the Board of Elections will be the responsibility of the Supervisor of Elections, a county employee appointed by the Board of Commissioners.
Craig explained his opposition to the proposal.
“My objection is political parties appointing members of the election board,” he said. “Elections are so important, there shouldn’t be any political parties appointing them. “As I look at the political parties in our community, whether it be Republicans or Democrats, I don’t think they can make those non-partisan decisions. I don’t think the state can, I don’t think the federal government can. All you have to do is look at any news about all the difficulties the parties have.”
Craig said the fact that the Board of Commissioners has the final say-so on the appointments does not change his opinion of the process.
“All it does is create tension between the commissioners and embarrassment for the citizens,” he said. “Because resumes are submitted, interviews are done in public, and if three commissioners say no, then the candidate is potentially humiliated and embarrassed if not selected.”
Blackwell, who has held the office for 25 years, said there will be no drastic changes.
“The plan is I will still be involved in it in an advisory role or consultation role so that it would transition over smoothly,” he said. “The ultimate plan is to transition it over, so that you hardly notice that it even happened, to pass the knowledge on to the next board…And that’s a yearslong process.”