May 12, 2008 08:03 pm
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By CINDY BISHOP
cindy.bishop@gaflnews.com
ABBEVILLE — It will be up to Wilcox County Elections Superintendent Betty Jean Anderson whether to call a special election to fill the Wilcox County Commission and Board of Education seats for Districts 2 and 4.
During a special called county commission meeting Monday afternoon in the main courtroom of the courthouse, county attorney John T. Croley Jr. informed the board, as well as about 25 people who attended the meeting, that his proposal to Anderson would be to hold a special election in November to fill the seats since the general election will already be held at that time.
“The only other option is to hold the special election in September and that would only be an added expense to the county since the general elections are already set for November,” Croley said.
Once Anderson calls for the special election, qualifying fees will be set and the election notice will be published in the county’s legal organ.
Candidates who qualified for the seats during the week of April 28-May 2 will be refunded their fees. Those include District 2 Commissioner incumbent Marcy Stone and his opposition, David M. Brown and Marvin Talley; District 2 school board incumbent William Dozier and his challenger Travis B. Fitzgerald; District 4 school board incumbent Donnie Clark and his opposition, Henry Berry Collier; and District 4 Commission incumbent Clarice S. Morrison, who drew no opposition.
The issue at hand arose when Croley was informed by an unknown source that elections to fill the District 2 and District 4 seats on both county boards (Commission and BOE) should have been conducted in 2006.
Therefore, the current terms of Commissioners Stone and Morrison, as well BOE representatives Dozier (District 2) and Clark (District 4) are already into their second year. Once the special election is held, whoever wins in those races will fill the unexpired two years left, and all seats will be up for reelection in 2010.
Croley said there could be a multitude of reasons of why this issue has arisen, but most likely a typographical error is the cause.
“I just don’t know of any other way to solve this problem without the special election,” said Croley. “Nobody on the Commission was aware of this apparently and no one was expecting this to happen.”
Croley said the July primaries will go ahead as planned with voters casting ballots in the race for sheriff, coroner, probate court, tax commissioner and superior court clerk.
As to a second issue brought to Croley’s attention involving whether or not Stone lives in his district, the attorney said he went by the most recent reapportionment map and was “told” by Stone that he lived on the southwest side of Cannonville Road.
“That’s all I needed to hear,” said Croley. “Any other maps that show different boundaries are null in this case. I have to go by the reapportionment map and if that’s where he says his residence is and according to that map he does reside within his district, then that’s what I’m concerned with. The bigger issue is the election right now.”
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