COVID-19 Scrambles Already Complex Local Election Scene

The outbreak of COVID-19 in Georgia and Oconee County has added another dimension to an already complex election year in the county.

On Feb. 5, District Attorney Ken Mauldin suddenly announced he would retire, resulting in cancellation of the expected May 19 primary contest and calling into question whether an election would be held at all, even though two announced candidates had been campaigning for months for the spot.

On March 6, Oconee County Commission Chair John Daniell, who was elected without opposition for years ago, found himself with three challengers–two Republicans and one Democratic–as qualifying came to a close.

Two last-minute filings that day for Board of Election seats posts set up partisan competition in November. Two Republicans filed for an open seat on the Board of Education, setting up primary competition on May 19.

An already lively Sheriff’s race got more lively with the public endorsement on March 7 of one of the candidates–James Hale–by a new group called the Oconee County Gun Coalition, which also is asking the Board of Commissioners to declare Oconee County a Second Amendment Sanctuary.

Then, after two weeks of early voting for the March 24 Presidential Primary in which Democratic ballots greatly outnumbered Republican ballots in the usually Republican county, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on March 14, citing COVID-19, shut down the election, merging it with the May 19 primary and nonpartisan judicial elections.

The Oconee County Democratic Party on March 19 cancelled its scheduled meeting and held an online conference call with scheduled speaker U.S. Senate Candidate Jon Ossoff instead. The Oconee County Republican Party asked people not to attend its convention on March 21and to send email instead and cancelled its March 23 meeting.

Candidates have had to adapt as well, and Mokah Jasmine Johnson organized a Virtual Town Hall meeting on March 24 with fellow Democratic candidates Deborah Gonzalez, Jonathan Wallace and Pete Fuller as a way of reaching out to citizens.

On March 21, Oconee County Commissioner William “Bubber” Wilkes passed away unexpectedly, creating an opening on the Commission that will remain until a special election is held on Nov. 3. That special election will be without a primary, meaning candidates simply announce and qualify for the race and chose a party label on their own.

For more on this story, please go to Oconee County Observations. Included is a summary of information on candidates taken from their qualifying forms. The summary is available for download.