The Cobb Board of Elections and Registration voted on Tuesday to schedule special elections for two seats on the Cobb Board of Commissioners in early 2025.
The primary election for District 2 and District 4 will be held on Feb. 11, and the general election will take place on April 29.
If runoffs are necessary, they would take place on March 11.
Qualifying for both seats takes place from Dec. 18-20.
The special elections were ordered by a Cobb judge in July after she struck down electoral maps that the commission’s Democratic majority approved in 2022, claiming home rule redistricting powers.
Those maps had part of East Cobb in District 2. But the ruling declared that only the Georgia legislature can conduct county reapportionment and that the “home rule” maps were unconstitutional.
District 2 Democratic commissioner Jerica Richardson, who had been redrawn out of her East Cobb home by the legislature, ran unsuccessfully for Congress this spring.
Primary elections were held in May under those maps, but Judge Kellie Hill ordered a do-over in both.
Hill’s ruling was based on an appeal by a Republican candidate, Alicia Adams, who had been disqualified.
Adams’ qualification was challenged by Mindy Seger, an East Cobb Democratic activist and Richardson ally, who claimed Adams didn’t live in District 2 under the home rule maps.
The Cobb elections board agreed and voted to disqualify Adams, but she prevailed in Cobb Superior Court.
Previous legal efforts to void the home rule maps failed in the Georgia Supreme Court, which claimed that the plaintiffs didn’t have standing.
Former Cobb Board of Education member Jaha Howard won the Democratic primary for District 2, and East Cobb resident Pam Reardon qualified under the home rule maps.
But under the legislative maps, she lives in District 3, represented by Republican JoAnn Birrell, whose term expires in 2026.
The only East Cobb-area precincts still included in District 2 are Terrell Mill 1, Powers Ferry 1, portions of Sewell Mill 1, Sewell Mill 3, Elizaebeth 2, Elizabeth 3, Elizabeth 4 and East Piedmont 1.
Democratic District 4 commissioner Monique Sheffield easily won her primary. The District 1 seat, held by Republican Keli Gambrill, also expires in 2026.
It’s unclear whether Richardson and Sheffield will be able to continue serving after their terms expire on Dec. 31.
Commissioners voted in September to vacate the District 2 seat, and Richardson is appealing that decision in Cobb Superior Court.
Related:
- East Cobb voters prefer Trump, but Harris makes it close
- Loudermilk, East Cobb legislators win easy re-election
- Cristadoro pledges open door after Cobb school board election
- Cobb Democrats win countywide races; GOP holds school board
- East Cobb Votes: Close school board races; transit tax fails
- MORE: Visit the East Cobb News Politics & Elections Page
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