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 NUMBERSApproximate 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 Union10,000-$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.