On January 5, Georgia held a special election to fill the vacant State Senate seat, 22nd district. Georgia special elections put party labels on the ballot, but parties don’t have nominees. Individuals file by paying a filing fee, but no petition is needed. Three Democrats and one Libertarian appeared on the ballot.
The results: Democrat Hardie Davis 48.42%; Democrat Harold Jones 39.99%; Libertarian Taylor Bryant 9.14%; Democrat Sandra Scott 2.42%. See the Secretary of State’s election results web page here.
The last time this seat was up, in November 2008, the vote had been: Democratic 79.5%, Republican 20.5%.
Richard, I realize that this was only a state Senate seat and not a state-wide race for the Senate, but I wanted to ask the following: If it were a state-wide race, would a party have ballot access for 4 years in Georgia if it polled above 5 percent? Congrats to Taylor Bryant for getting that many votes in a solid Democratic district.
No, the Georgia vote test for full status is 20%, not 5%. Also the 20% vote test only applies to Governor, or President. And the presidential 20% vote test uses the nationwide vote, not the vote within Georgia for President. The law was written that way in 1964 to make sure that segregationist independent presidential candidates (like Strom Thurmond in 1948), if they got on the ballot in future Georgia presidential elections, would not be able to create a new party with the Georgia vote alone. In 1968 George Wallace carried Georgia but that vote for the American Party was useless for creating a ballot-qualified party.
Georgia also has a 1% vote test for a party to be automatically on for the statewide offices.
Greetings All,
There is another little wrinkle that Taylor discovered when he qualified for the race at the Sec States Office in Atlanta. He was informed by the clerk who filed the papers that if he won this special election, he would still have to petition to appear on the ballot this November when this term expired. The scope and complexity of my fair states 1943 Jim Crow Ballot access laws are simply astonishing.
Georgia has to be the “Top Dawg” when it comes to ballot access suppression. Perhaps they should be given an award as the state which can most restrict the rights of citizens to run for public office. Then maybe they would be shamed into changing the laws….