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Know The Candidates
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Elections are only -214 days away!
 

VoteACC.org is Athens-Clarke County, Georgia's internet hub for consolidated, unbiased, local election information.

Find out about ACC's:

Runoff Election THIS TUESDAY, Dec. 2nd

The races have not been decided yet!  Go vote again!  There will be a runoff for US Senator, Georgia Public Service Commissioner for District 4, and Georgia Court of Appeals Judge.

The libertarian candidates for Senator and PSC kept the republican and democratic candidates from obtaining the necessary 50% plus 1 votes in the Nov 4th general elections, while the non-partisan election for Appeals Court Judge was narrowed from 7 to 2 candidates in the general election.
The US Senate race is particularly important because it will determine whether the democrats will have a "filibuster-proof" majority (see this article for an explanation), but the Appeals Court Judge race is also important in that the incumbent is rarely contested even though the position is elected every 4 years, so this election will probably determine who will make Appeals Court decisions for quite a while.

The candidates for US Senate are Saxby Chambliss (R) and Jim Martin (D).
The candidates for GA PSC are Lauren McDonald, Jr. (R) and Jim Powell (D).
The candidates fro GA Appeals Court Judge are Sara Doyle and Mike Sheffield.

Here are overviews of the positions that are up for election:

  • The workings of the US Senate were probably covered in your 5th grade social studies class, but do you know how it is organized? Here's a chart. There is a ton more information about the US Senate on the internet ... you can start at http://www.senate.gov/
  • The Georgia Public Service Commission's mission is "to exercise its authority and influence to ensure that consumers receive safe, reliable and reasonably priced telecommunications, transportation, electric and natural gas services from financially viable and technically competent companies."
  • The Georgia Court of Appeals handles cases whose decisions have been appealed from lower courts.  Only the Georgia Supreme Court can overrule the decision of the Appeals Court.  As reported on their website, "The Court of Appeals has statewide appellate jurisdiction of all cases except those involving constitutional questions, land title disputes, the construction of wills, murder, election contests, habeas corpus, extraordinary remedies, divorce and alimony and cases where original appellate jurisdiction lies with the superior courts. The Court of Appeals may certify legal questions to the Supreme Court."

Sample Ballot

Here is a link to the Athens-Clarke County sample ballot for the Dec. 2nd runoff election.

Who represents you?

Find out who your state representatives are with the Secretary of State's Poll Locator. It also has where you should go to vote.

You can see the map of your U.S. House of Representatives District (10th Congressional District in Georgia), your Georgia House of Representatives District (113th, 114th, or 115th State District), and your Georgia Senate District (46th or 47th State District). The two U.S. Senators from Georgia both represent the entire state.

Currently there is no "poll locator" for local elected officials, but you can still find out who your Athens-Clarke County representatives are.

  • For county commissioners, find your residence on the district map. Each citizen is represented by 1 of the 8 district commissioners and also by 1 of the 2 "super-district" commissioners. Match your two districts with the commissioners list to find your representatives.
  • For school board commissioners, locate your residence on the school district map and then match it with the Board of Education member list. Each citizen is represented by 1 of 9 school district commissioners.

Once you know what districts you are a member of, you can look at the list of candidates to find out who will be on your particular ballot.

ACC Board of Elections

The Athens-Clarke County, Georgia Board of Elections website is the official government source for registering to vote as well as when, where, and how to vote, and it also has absentee ballots and a live update of election results on election days.

Register to Vote!

Voter registration forms are available at the Board of Elections Office in downtown Athens, the Athens Regional Library on Baxter St., the ACC Tag Office on Lexington Rd., the State Patrol Office on Hwy 29, and online at www.sos.state.ga.us/elections.