County Attorney Spells Out Options For Election Board

The Oconee County Board of Elections and Registration has three options when it meets at 5 p.m. on Monday to hear a challenge of the eligibility of selected registered voters to cast a ballot in the Jan. 5 runoff election, according to County Attorney Daniel Haygood.

The Board can find probable cause and challenge each of the voters on a list provided to the Board by Patricia Daugherty, 5041 Price Mill Road, west of Bishop, Haygood said. Challenged voters could be allowed to vote, but their ballots would be provisional, he said.

The Board could find that there is no probable cause and dismiss Daugherty’s challenge, Haygood said.

The third option is for the Board to say it cannot take action because of a federal law prohibiting challenges during the final 90 days before an election, according to Haygood.

Haygood said on Thursday that he didn’t know how many names were on the list, which had been submitted as a spreadsheet, but Daugherty said on Saturday that the list contains more than 1,400 names.

The meeting of the five-member Board is scheduled to take place at the Elections and Registration Office, 10 Court Street, opposite the Courthouse in Watkinsville. The meeting also will be live streamed on the Facebook page of the Elections and Registration Office.

Early voting for the Jan. 5 runoff continues through Thursday at the Civic Center, 2661 Hog Mountain Road, west of Butler’s Crossing. The hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.

For more on this story, please go to Oconee County Observations.