Days after the Cobb Board of Elections and Registration set calendar dates for special commission elections, its attorneys filed a motion opposed to the county’s continuing efforts to litigate a redistricting saga that has dragged on for nearly two years.
Elections board attorney Daniel White wrote in a filing in Cobb Superior Court on Friday that its opposition to continued legal action over county “home rule” maps is rooted in “the need for final resolution” in the dispute.
White said that the elections board didn’t have “a preferred outcome” in two legal cases over the county’s decisions to use commission electoral maps that differed from those the Georgia legislature approved in 2022.
“The only preference that Cobb BOER had regarding the Home Rule Map dispute was to see it resolved one way or the other,” the filing states (you can read it here).
“To the extent that Cobb County now seeks to undo that resolution or to drag this case into a prolonged appeal, Cobb BOER is opposed to that effort.”
The motion was filed in the court of Judge Kellie Hill, who ruled last month that the commission’s Democratic majority didn’t have authority under the Georgia Constitution to adopt their own maps.
She sided with another Cobb judge who ruled in January in another case that only the legislature can conduct county reapportionment.
Hill has scheduled a hearing for Tuesday at 9:30 a.m. to hear the county’s request for intervention, following an emergency motion filed last week.
The controversy began in October 2022, after legislative maps drew Democratic Commissioner Jerica Richardson out her District 2 residence in East Cobb.
Richardson, Cupid and District 4 Commissioner Monique Sheffield claimed the county had home rule authority to draw electoral maps and approved the use of maps drawn by the Cobb delegation.
Those maps were never voted upon by the legislature, which adopted maps proposed by Cobb Republican lawmakers.
The Cobb elections board followed the home rule maps in the May primary and disqualified a Republican candidate, Alicia Adams, who lived in District 2 in the legislative maps but not in the home rule maps.
Hill ruled in favor of Adams, throwing out the primary results, and ordered new elections in District 2 and District 4. Richardson did not seek re-election; Sheffield won the Democratic primary in District 4.
On Monday, the elections board set two sets of dates to re-do the primaries: from Feb. 11 to April 29 if there are general election runoffs in November; or from March 18-June 17 if there are not runoffs.
But on Tuesday, Cobb Commission Chairwoman Lisa Cupid was adamant that the county intervene in the Adams case, to which it had not been a party.
In addition to extra funding needed for for special elections, she said “a great harm” was done to the county when the legislature ignored the delegation maps (the county’s filing is here).
In filing a motion to intervene, Assistant Cobb County Attorney Elizabeth Monyak said that Hill’s injunction “could potentially deprive half of Cobb County from having any representation on the BOC until June of 2025 at the earliest.”
In his motion, however, White said the county’s enabling legislation allows commissioners [in this case districts 2 and 4] to serve their terms until their successors are elected.
JoAnn Birrell and Keli Gambrill, the two Republican commissioners, have objected to the home rule maps since they were first put in use in January 2023, and reiterated their opposition on Tuesday.
“Follow the law,” said Birrell, whose District 3 includes most of East Cobb under the legislative maps.
The elections board, which received an additional $2.4 million from commissioners this week to conduct the November elections, is ready to move on as well.
“It is past time for the voters of Cobb County to have a final resolution regarding the Home Rule Map issue,” White wrote.
“The County chose not to intervene in this case for over four months . . . and has now moved to intervene only after it is not satisfied with the outcome.”
Related:
- Advance voting schedule for Cobb general election approved
- Cobb special elections scheduled as map dispute lingers
- Cobb to appeal court order for new commission elections
- New commission elections ordered in redistricting ruling
- Cobb warns of text scam to apply for an absentee ballot
- Trump campaign opens volunteer office in East Cobb
- Howard cruises in Cobb commission runoff election
- Primary results: DA defeated; Commission race heads to runoff
- Cobb redistricting lawsuit dismissed by Ga. Supreme Court
- Cobb school board Post 5 candidates receive endorsements
- MORE: Visit the East Cobb News Politics & Elections Page
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