Gov. Brian Kemp signs law to change Columbia County Board of Election

Gov. Brian Kemp has signed a bill changing how Columbia County appoints its Board of Elections.

The law, H.B. 730, was signed by Kemp on May 1. It was introduced by local state Reps. Jodi Lott, Barry Fleming, Mark Newton and Rob Leverett and passed the state House and Senate easily.

The bill creates a three-person Board of Election appointed by the County Commission — one each nominated by the county parties that received the most and the second most votes in the last Presidential election, and a chair chosen and appointed by the County Commissioners.

The Board of Commissioners passed a resolution in early March requesting the General Assembly amend the law to bring it in line with the Georgia Supreme Court decision Delay v. Sutton, which banned private entities from appointing members of the DeKalb County Board of Ethics.

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According to the legislation establishing the Board of Elections from 1993, the origional board consisted of three members, one each from the parties getting the highest and second highest numbers of votes in the last presidential election. These were appointed directly by the parties without approval from the Board of Commissioners. The two members would then jointly agree on a third member.

According to Cassidy Harris, public relations manager for the Board of Commissioners, the only seat that is up this year is the at-large seat, which expires on June 30. The two other seats do not expire until 2025.

Nominations for the seat will be taken up on June 13 by the Management and Internal Services committee and then brought to the full board for approval on June 20.

This article originally appeared on Augusta Chronicle: Columbia County Board of Election law signed by Gov. Brian Kemp