atlanta — The Georgia district attorney said she is challenging the constitutionality of the law Requires nonpartisan elections For most local officials in the five most populous counties in the Atlanta area but not in the rest of the state.
DeKalb County Prosecutor Sheri Boston – flanked by Fulton County Prosecutor Fanny WillisClayton County Prosecutor Tasha Mosley and Cobb County Prosecutor Sonia Allen announced Wednesday in a park across the street from the state Capitol that they would file a lawsuit challenging the law. Boston, the sole plaintiff in the lawsuit, asserted that the measure violates the state and federal constitutions and targets Democratic strongholds under the guise of taking politics out of those elections.
“Republicans here at the state Capitol want to make it difficult for voters in our districts to choose the people who best represent us and our values,” Boston said. “But today we are here in the state Capitol to tell these legislators that we will not be ashamed to speak on behalf of the people of Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Gwinnett and Fulton counties.”
She rejected the idea that the law aims to improve public safety or remove politics from the equation.
“I think the intent of the law when you look at who they targeted is very clear,” Boston said. “They chose to go after Democratic strongholds where Democratic prosecutors and Democratic officials succeeded in these races.”
The lawsuit was filed against the state of Georgia. “We will defend the law as enacted and signed by the governor,” Kara Murray, a spokeswoman for State Attorney General Chris Carr, said in an email statement.
Willis and Boston had already done so He threatened to sue more the law When Republican Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed it last month. They noted that one reason Republicans targeted those five counties is because they all have black women as elected district attorneys.
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It was Willis Repeated target to Republican state legislators since then The impeachment of President Donald Trump And others regarding attempts to overturn Democrat Joe Biden’s victory in the 2020 presidential election in Georgia. That case He was fired last year.
State Sen. John Albers, a Republican from the Atlanta suburb of Roswell who pushed the law, said during the legislative session that he believes it will enhance public safety, although elected county sheriffs will continue to be elected under party labels. Albers did not immediately respond Wednesday to an online message sent through his legislative office seeking comment on Boston’s lawsuit.
The law, which takes effect in 2028, would require nonpartisan elections for county prosecutors, district attorneys, county commissioners, court clerks and tax commissioners.
Elections for all affected officials except district attorneys will be postponed to May, when voters will choose nonpartisan judges. That means the electorate is smaller than it was in November, with turnout mostly driven by primaries for party offices held at the same time. If no candidate wins a majority, nonpartisan runoffs will be held in June.
The measure applies in Fulton County, which includes most of Atlanta, as well as suburban Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb and Gwinnett counties. Fulton, DeKalb and Clayton counties are the three most heavily Democratic jurisdictions in the state. That has already happened in Cobb and Gwinnett, which were Republican strongholds in Georgia They increasingly voted Democratic Since 2016.
Boston said the law violates Georgia’s Uniformity Clause, which it said requires laws to work the same way across the state. She said it also violates the equal protection clauses of the state and federal constitutions because lawmakers did not provide a good reason to treat those five counties, their voters and elected officials differently. She said lawmakers violated procedural laws when they voted to pass it.