Gwinnett County's solicitor general said Friday that she will look into a claim that County Commission Chairman Charles Bannister violated state law when his campaign mailed promotional material featuring Georgia's state seal.

Solicitor General Rosanna Szabo said by e-mail Friday that she was made aware of the mailing by Bannister's opponent in the July 15 Republican primary for commission chair, Commissioner Lorraine Green.

"There are laws governing the use of the state seal," she wrote in the e-mail. "We will carefully consider those laws to determine if the mail piece in question was lawful."

Bannister said Friday that he had not seen the mailing before it went out and never approved the seal's use. But based on initial research his staff conducted after the complaint was made, he said, it didn't appear that use of the seal was illegal.

Bannister said he thought Green was attacking him in a bid to move voters to her camp, based on polling that Bannister's campaign conducted which showed, he said, that Green is trailing by "15-17 points."

"First of all," Green said, "that's untrue -- and second, it has nothing to do with a violation of state law."

The seal appears in a piece of campaign literature delivered to some Gwinnett homes Thursday.

In it, the words "Official Gwinnett Conservative Republican Voter Guide" and "Gwinnett County Commission Chairman" are superimposed over the state seal of Georgia.

The mailing purports to compare the candidates' records on conservative issues.

In an e-mailed statement alerting reporters to Szabo's inquiry, Green said Bannister should not have used the seal for political purposes.

"The use of the Georgia Seal to deceive voters into believing that mailings come from the State is an extremely serious violation of trust," Green said, according to the statement.

Szabo said that while she expected to investigate the matter quickly, she does not anticipate that the inquiry would be complete by Tuesday's election.

She said she may seek to have a special prosecutor appointed to review the case.