By Lee Woodard

The Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration unanimously certified the special primary election for the Cobb County Board of Commissioners’ districts 2 and 4 at its regular meeting Monday.

Polling officials reported no issues with voting equipment and all polls closed on time, board Chairwoman Tori Silas said. Given the small number of votes, poll workers counted all ballots by hand. Turnout grew over the day and peaked at closing time, Silas said.

Board member Debbie Fisher questioned the selection of polling places for the upcoming special elections, noting that they appeared to have left out the northern portions of Cobb County.

Elections and Voter Registration Director Tate Fall replied that there were no suitable locations available, given the exclusion of private locations, such as the Cobb EMC offices from special elections. When Silas called for a vote to approve the polling places for future special elections, Fisher cast the lone dissent.

In the District 2 Democratic primary, former state representative Erick Allen received 1,669 votes, former Cobb County School District board member Jaha V. Howard received 1,568 and retired contractor Tracy Stevenson received 432.

There will be a special Democratic primary runoff on March 11 between Allen and Howard.

The winner of the Democratic primary runoff will face Alicia Adams in the District 2 special general election on April 19. Adams ran unopposed in the Republican primary.

In the District 4 special primary, video engineer and army veteran Matthew Hardwick received 462 votes, defeating Julien Ghras for the Republican nomination. Ghras received 192 votes.

Incumbent Democrat Monique Sheffield received 2,927 votes versus 1,132 for Yashica Marshall, winning the Democratic primary. Hardwick and Sheffield will face off in the April 19 general election.

On Feb. 5, former District 2 commissioner Jerica Richardson lost her seat when the Georgia Court of Appeals refused to hear her appeal of Cobb County Superior Court Judge Kellie Hill’s decision disqualifying her and calling for a special election.

This dispute and the special elections arose after the predominantly Republican Georgia General Assembly redrew the map for her district and that of Cobb Board of Commissioners District 4. This excluded Richardson, a Democrat, from the new District 2.

The Cobb County Board of Commissioners had a 3 to 2 Democratic majority until Richardson was removed by court order. The board argued prior to the 2024 general election that it could use its own district map for the election under a “home rule” provision. Judge Hill, in her decision, proclaimed the “home rule” inapplicable to the county’s map, and ruled that the map was unconstitutional.

Her ruling came after the Nov. 5, 2024, general election used the county-drawn map, thus necessitating the special primaries and general election. The ruling resulted from a lawsuit brought by Adams as a prospective GOP candidate for Richardson’s seat.

“The court, having ruled the Home Rule Map unconstitutional in the companion appeal action finds that plaintiff has a clear legal right to seek qualification as a candidate for the Cobb County Commission, post 2, using the Legislative Map and, if qualified, to run in a special primary for that post,” Hill wrote, as quoted by Jeff Amy for the Associated Press on July 26, 2024.

As a student at the University of Georgia, Lee Woodward studied journalism, literature and history. He also worked for local and campus newspapers. It was there that he first developed his love of writing. His fiction career began with the publication of his debut novel, Unfinished Business, a murder mystery set in 1968 in rural Florida. The remaining installments in his Tom Williams series, Fly Away, Pronounced Ponce, and Last Gleaming, take place more recently in the Atlanta area.

He is married and lives in East Cobb where he spends his free time writing, reading, and playing tennis. He also enjoys community outreach activities.