This week’s Atlanta City Council meeting erupted into angry accusations of personal vendettas during a lengthy debate over when the qualifying period should be for a special election.
When Keisha Sean Waites resigned from her Post 3 At-Large seat on March 8 to qualify to run for Fulton County Clerk of Superior and Magistrate Courts, the council was faced with picking a date for a special election to fill the citywide seat. The council also had to choose the dates when candidates could qualify.
The Nov. 5 general election is the earliest date to hold a special election to fill the vacant council seat, according to Georgia law. The council agreed to the date, but members expressed it was unfortunate constituents would be without a voting representative for roughly eight months.
The legislation proposed at the March 18 council meeting recommended the qualifying period be May 14-16. However, several members noted that August is the traditional qualifying period for a November election. Forcing candidates to qualify so soon would likely reduce the number of potential candidates. It would also prevent Waites from qualifying to run for her seat again if she were to lose the clerk’s race.
Councilmembers Andrea Boone and Michael Julian Bond both argued the city’s tradition is for qualifying to be held three months before an election.
Bond made a motion to move the qualifying period to July 22 – 26, but Councilmember Alex Wan commented that it appeared that his colleague picked those dates by “throwing a dart at a calendar.”
Bond, visibly angered by Wan’s accusation, responded that the May qualifying dates were designed to keep Waites from being able to run again for the council seat should she lose her bid for Fulton County Clerk.
“It is a poison dart aimed at a colleague who resigned and a not-so-underhanded effort to prevent that person from seeking office again, within this calendar year,” Bond said.
An emotional…
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