Tag Archives: special election

Precincts changed yet again for May 2014 Special Election and Primary

Where can you vote on Tuesday May 20th, Election Day for the Special Election for Lowndes County Commission District 5, for the Lowndes County Board of Education, for the elections for judges, and for the primaries for the Georgia statehouse, statewide offices, and U.S. Congress? Yes, precincts have changed yet again, but you can find your polling place in My Voter Page by the Georgia Secretary of State. Or you can zoom and pan on the VALOR GIS Election Boundary Map.

Whichever way you find your polling place, it’s time to get out and vote. If we don’t, why should Atlanta pay any attention to us poor rural stepchildren?

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Gretchen Quarterman on Chris Beckham radio show 2014-04-29

“People would have a lot more confidence in the government if they understood it and they could see it happen,” said Gretchen Quarterman this morning on drive-time radio. She used last night’s Brookhaven apartment building rezoning public hearing in Lake Park to illustrate: local landowners have property rights and there was a lack of communication between the developers of a proposed apartment building, the Lake Park city government, and the neighbors.

She also talked about jobs, including in local agriculture. For example, she ran the 2014 South Georgia Growing Local Conference. Money spent on local agriculture supports the local economy, not companies far away.

She talked about stewardship of resources, including preserving local property and environment from the Sabal Trail natural gas pipeline. She advocated Continue reading →

Cobb EMC loses special election by huge margin

Cobb EMC lost a court-ordered special election yesterday by 2561 to 1113, according to Take Back Cobb EMC’s facebook page. That was the vote against mail-in voting, because the insurgents believe mail-in voting helps incumbent directors win re-election. It’s Cobb EMC’s incumbent directors who want to build a coal plant in Ben Hill County, about 70 miles north of here.

MJDOnline explained the issues 14 September 2011, Don McKee: Decision day comes Saturday for Cobb EMC members

There are two questions in the form of proposed bylaw amendments to be decided by members Saturday: (1) whether to allow mail-in voting for directors, and (2) whether to prohibit payment of retirement benefits to directors.

Reform groups Cobb EMC Owners Association, Take Back Cobb EMC and Cobb EMC Watch strongly oppose allowing mail-in voting until new directors are elected. They argue that mail-in voting would give an overwhelming advantage to incumbent directors with unlimited EMC member funds at their disposal in campaigning for re-election versus the very limited funds available to challengers.

“The historical evidence of mail-in voting shows that it favors the incumbents over challengers,” Cobb EMC Watch says. “It gives the corporation tremendous leverage to manipulate and influence the voting process. The corporation can use its much greater financial resources to back its slate of candidates.”

One would guess the second item on the ballot passed: Continue reading →

Lake Park City Council meeting and special election


Former Council Member Jeff Spradley in the audience
At their 3 May 2011 meeting, the Lake Park City Council acknowledged that one of their number had moved out of the city limits and resigned, so they had to decide whether to hold a special election or just wait until the November regular election. After long deliberation, which seemed to be decided by the precedent of Dasher going ahead with a special election, Lake Park decided this:

Mayor Walter K. Sandlin, Council Member Ronald Carter, Council Member Eric Schindler, City Attorney Rob Plumb, Mayor Pro-Tem Council Member Paul Mulkey
Due to the resignation of Council Member Spradley
a Special Election will be held
September 20, 2011 to fill the vacancy.
Qualifying period will open on June 1st and end
12 noon on June 3rd.
There is a qualifying fee of $54.00.
We have no wards. All positions are “at large”.
For more information please contact us at
229.559.7470
So if you live in Lake Park and you want to run, you need to qualify by noon today. Mayor Sandlin predicted there would be multiple qualifiers. We’ll see how it goes.

Incidentally, the entire council is up for election in November, including whoever wins the special election will have to run again in November if they want to stay on the council.

In that and other business, it is quite interesting watching this city council interact rather informally with citizens, yet taking some care Continue reading →