Elections Board: Carolyn Cosby Can Run For Commission Chair

Cherokee County residents will head to the polls in November to choose a new County Commission chair — again.

The Cherokee County Board of Elections has determined a petition submitted by Carolyn Cosby to run for the commission chair seat has enough valid signatures to place her name on the Nov. 4 general election ballot.

Cosby’s petition included 6,012 valid signatures, 30 more than the 5,982 signatures needed to be placed on the ballot. The board voted unanimously to declare the petition signatures valid, thus placing her name on the ballot as an Independent candidate to challenge incumbent Republican Buzz Ahrens.

Ahrens defeated Republican challenger Jackie Archer in the May 20 general primary. No Democratic challenger entered the race.

Cosby, who did not attend the meeting, did not have a shortage of supporters on hand to hear the board’s decision. John Hiland, the new chairman of the Canton Tea Party, was in attendance, as were friends and family members of the Ball Ground resident.

Before coming to a decision, the board moved into executive session to discuss potential litigation. When they returned, board member Cindy Castello and chair Randy Gravley both read statements praising the elections office staff for their dedication to their jobs and working through Cosby’s petition.

Castello said the staff has been involved in a “long and tedious process.”

“I would also like to make it crystal clear that this board and staff have not and will not be intimidated by anyone,” she added. “Mark my words: you have not intimidated any of us.”

Gravley also debunked earlier claims by Cosby that the staff dragged its feet on the process to verify the signatures.

“While statements had been made that our office was not properly and expeditiously reviewing Mrs. Cosby’s petition, that is simply not true,” he said. “That is baseless and it is a bold faced lie. This staff worked from the very day that petition was turned into this office until 8:30 last night. This office is dedicated to this county and our electorate. They have spent time away from their family and their kids, on nights and on weekends and I applaud them. And I am sorry that they had to be subject to these baseless accusations.”

Interim Elections Supervisor Kim Stancil gave an overview of how her office proceeded to verify all the signatures on the petition, including searching for a person’s birth date, last and/or first name and address.

“Some of the hand writing is very bad, so you have to use whatever method you can to find these people,” she said.

For example, if a person listed his or her’s address, but the staff could not make out what street he or she lives on, they were able to use Cherokee County’s Geographical Information System database to pull up the streets that all start with a specific number.

The interim supervisor said office had to disqualify a total of 1,710 signatures for various reasons, which left Cosby with 7,722 total signatures.

Stancil said 66 pages — totaling 896 signatures — were deemed invalid due to a code involving signatures collected by a notary public. Georgia code section 21-2-170 stipulates no notary public can sign a petition as an elector or serve as a circulator of a petition he or she has notarized.

Each page also had to contain an affidavit by the person who gathered the signatures, commonly known as the circulator. The circulator’s signatures have to be notarized by a notary public, Stancil added. Those 896 signatures were notarized by individuals who signed the petition.

Other incidents in which signatures were ruled invalid:

-640 signatures were ruled ineligible because they were not registered Cherokee County voters.
-102 signatures were removed due to incomplete voter information provided on the petition; petition forms require residents to complete all required information — including providing a residential address — on the documents.
-64 signatures invalid, as they were duplicates names.
-7 signatures were simply “illegible,” Stancil stated. She noted they tried to use date of birth or residential address to track down those people, but they were unable to be verified.
-1 person who signed the petition later notified the staff that he wanted to withdraw his name from consideration before Cosby turned in the petition. Stancil said the request was granted as the law allows that to occur.

Additionally, Stancil said a separate category — which they referenced as unmatched or no signatures — included 90 people whose signatures did not match the one on that person’s voter registration card or driver’s license application.

The office attempted to contact the individuals, but had “limited success” in reaching those residents.

However, 17 of the 18 people they were able to contact confirmed they signed the petition, and those numbers were included in the valid category.