Tallapoosa circuit voters elect Lim to Superior Court seat

There’s a new judge coming to town for the Tallapoosa Circuit Superior Court.

Following the July 22 runoff, Haralson County attorney Meng Lim will be taking over the Superior Court seat being vacated by Judge Richard Sutton when he retires at the end of the year.

Lim, who celebrated the win with family and supporters in Haralson County last Tuesday, said he was excited to be taking the seat in the Tallapoosa Circuit Superior Court.

Upon taking the seat in January, Lim will become the first elected Asian American Superior Court Judge in Georgia, according to a press release from his campaign following Tuesday’s election results.

“God Bless the United States of America, the only place on earth where a refugee kid who spoke no English when I arrived could have aspired to become a Superior Court Judge,” he said in the release. “God bless the people of Polk and Haralson Counties of Georgia, for you have spoken. I am humbled by this honor, and I hope to acquit myself to be your good and faithful servant for justice.”

Lim said he already had ideas for shaking up the court, including hearing cases more than once a week to move proceedings forward in a more timely fashion.

“That will take cooperation from the commissioners of both counties to make it happen, so I hope to get their support on that issue as well,” he said.

He added that no matter what, he maintains his belief he will remain “someone that the people can believe in, that people in our judicial system can trust.”

Lim, whose family moved to Bremen when he was 9 years old, was the Bremen High School valedictorian of 1991 and a graduate of Emory University and the Mercer Law School.

One of the reasons Lim ran for the seat, according to his post-election win press release, was for his brother who enlisted in the U.S. Navy following the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks. He was killed in a car wreck in 2012, and the alleged perpetrator evaded an outstanding warrant for two years.

The suspect was later captured after she was involved in another wreck involving a death in May, the release stated.

“I want to thank my brother for being in my mind. I’m doing all this in his memory,” he said. “It’s been a good part of this campaign in trying to remember him in all of this.”

Lim said he also thanked his core group of supporters – he said too many names to list at one time without forgetting anyone – for their hard work over the course of the campaign, which for him started in March of this year.

Local attorney and juvenile court judge Chuck Morris said following the election night results he felt Lim ran a good campaign and congratulated him on the win.

He thanked his own supporters for their tireless efforts to try and get him elected.

“I do want to thank so many people who supported me during this process, including my family, friends, volunteers and so many people who I met during the campaign who were so kind to me and supportive of my ideas I had on the direction I wanted to see the court go in,” he said.

Lim’s supporters in both Haralson and Polk counties came out to the tune of 61 percent to 38 percent in favor of the new judge. Lim drew two votes for every one in Haralson County, with their final vote tally of 2174 to 927. The race was closer in Polk County – 1,812 votes for Lim versus 1,544 for Morris – but not close enough to overcome Lim’s lead in Haralson County.

The only precinct in Polk County Morris won – and by 39 votes – was the Cedartown precinct, with a final tally of 562 to 523. Lim won by wide majorities everywhere by Aragon, where it came down to seven votes: 169 to 162 in favor of Lim.