Proposal would allow special election before November

A last-minute effort is underway before the legislative session ends to change the rules that have made it hard for DeKalb County to fill its two vacant commissioner seats until November.

One in 10 DeKalb residents currently don’t have any representation on the commission, and the county’s Board of Voter Registration and Elections said this week it can’t hold a special election to fill the District 3 and 7 seats during the May general primary because what’s required under the current election rules isn’t feasible, officials said.

When the need for a special election happens less than 90 days before a planned election, officials can only hold it as a “separate and apart” election — one with separate staff, equipment and ballots.

State Rep. Saira Draper, a Democrat whose district includes parts of DeKalb that now are without local representation, has proposed legislators drop that requirement for situations like the one in DeKalb. She drafted an amendment, which was unanimously approved in the Senate Ethics Committee on Thursday, that would keep the 90-day time frame for ballot questions but drop it for other special elections.

“There’s not a lot of benefit of holding a separate and apart election, but there’s a lot of downside,” Draper said. “It’s crazy. There’s one in 10 DeKalb residents without representation for nine months, possibly 10 months if there’s a runoff.”

Draper’s amendment was added to House Bill 976, a bill dealing with other election issues.

It originally was not scheduled for discussion, but Ethics Chairman Max Burns, R-Sylvania, said he allowed the amendment out of respect to Minority Leader Gloria Butler, D-Stone Mountain. Butler gave him assurances that adding the amendment would not jeopardize support for the overall bill, he said.