Audio clip
Harris Blackwood
A special election to replace U.S. Rep. Nathan Deal, R-Ga., would cost counties in the 9th Congressional District more than $250,000.
If there's a runoff, it could be more than $500,000.
Rep. Deal, who announced his resignation Monday, will leave office March 8 to campaign for governor full time. Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue has 10 days from then to declare a special election to be held no sooner than 30 days after the declaration.
The date of that election would determine whether Rep. Deal's decision will put a dent in county budgets.
Spokesman Harris Blackwood said Rep. Deal hopes Gov. Perdue will name July 20, date of the primary election. The replacement will serve until the November general election.
A special election will "be totally a surprise," said Dade County Executive Ted Rumley. "It'll hurt a little bit."
BY THE NUMBERS
Approximate cost of special election in 9th District counties:
$7,000: Catoosa
$7,500: Dade
$7,000: Gordon
$10,000: Murray
$10,000-$15,000: Walker
$20,000: Whitfield
$15,000: Dawson
$18,000: Fannin
$50,000: Forsyth
$26,000: Gilmer
$45,000: Hall
$17,000v Lumpkin
$12,000-$15,000: Pickens
$10,000-$12,000v Union
10,000-$12,000: White
$264,500-$278,500: Total
(Seven of Gordon County's 13 precincts are in District 9.)
Source: County Commissions and Boards of Election
Dade budgets for voting equipment and workers in an election year, but a special election would add to costs.
Paying poll workers, programming machines and printing absentee ballots for the special election would cost anywhere from $7,000 in Gordon and Catoosa counties to $50,000 in more heavily populated Forsyth County, figures show.
"You have to have those people out there working," Whitfield County Elections Supervisor Kay Staten said. "All of that mounts up."
White County Probate Judge Garrison Baker said the special election would be nonpartisan. If no candidate got more than 50 percent of the vote, a runoff would be necessary.
Elections supervisors Barbara Luth in Forsyth County and Barbara Berry in Walker County are both hoping the governor holds the special election during the primary.
"If it's with the primary, it will drop that cost because we will have opened everything up," Ms. Luth said. "That would be much better."
But it would leave District 9 unrepresented for at least three more months in the throes of the health care debate. It also could be a challenge for those seeking to replace Mr. Deal and confusing for voters, officials said.
"(Candidates would) put the message out there: 'Vote for me every time you see my name,'" Mr. Blackwood said.
Andy began working at the Times Free Press in July 2008 as a general assignment reporter before focusing on Northwest Georgia and Georgia politics in May of 2009. Before coming to the Times Free Press, Andy worked for the Anniston Star, the Rome News Tribune and the Campus Carrier at Berry College, where he graduated with a communications degree in 2006. He is pursuing a master’s degree in business administration at the University of Tennessee ...
Holding a special election on the same date as the March primary would be to confusing. Voters would have two seperate ballots to vote on. Residents in the ninth district need to contact the Governors office to call for a special election as soon as possible. We do not need to not have a voice in Washington right now. The person I am endorsing Tom Graves is ready and willing for the election to be held at the ealiest possible date. The cost of this election would be a small cost if health care passed by one vote and we did not have a voice in Washington. You can read more about Tom at www.gravesforcongress.org>
If Nathan Deal Doesn't think first of the counties that he represents and increases an already tight budget, Why would we want him as a governor. Will he also continue to cost the entire state more money thinking of only himself. Why can he not just do the Job that he has be elected to do? We need someone that thinks of the burdens he is putting on the very people that has elected him.
Looks like Deal may put off resigning for now: http://www.peachpundit.com/2010/03/04/developing-deal-changes-mind/
Or login with:
New Account