Georgia Supreme Court hears PSC candidates’ ballot fight

With the Nov. 4 election two weeks off and early voting under way, the Georgia Supreme Court had tough questions Monday for state officials trying to kick a state Public Service Commission candidate off the ballot in a residency dispute.

Among them: What would it mean to remove candidate Jim Powell when hundreds of thousands of Georgians already have voted?

“We’ve had absentee and early voting and it’s been going on for three weeks,” said Justice Robert Benham. “Why is this not moot?”

The hearing was the latest round in a fight that’s been going on since May, when Powell’s Democratic primary opponent filed a complaint saying Powell didn’t live in his district.

Public Service commissioners run statewide but most live in one of five geographic districts.

Powell, a retired Department of Energy employee, has homes in both Hiawassee, which is in his district, and in Cobb County, which is not.

An administrative law judge ruled for Powell. But Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel overruled that. Powell learned the Sunday before the July primary that Handel had disqualified him from the ballot.

A court stayed Handel’s action the day before the primary. Powell won 85 percent of the vote. A Fulton County Superior Court judge then reviewed Handel’s order, and Powell won again.

That’s the ruling now before the Supreme Court. Meanwhile, he faces Republican Lauren McDonald and Libertarian Brandon Givens in the election.

The state argues that the lower court couldn’t overrule Handel’s decision if it was based on “any evidence,” according to state law.

Handel’s decision met that standard, Deputy Attorney General Stefan Ritter said Monday. State law requires a candidate to live in a district for a year before filing for an election. Powell moved to Hiawassee in time but didn’t file for a homestead exemption there until last spring.

Homestead exemption locale is one of 15 residency tests in state law.

Asked whether he thought the exemption test trumped all others, Ritter said it did not.

Ritter also said the appeal was not moot because of early voting.

“The actual election day is Nov. 4,” Ritter said. “The date certain is Nov. 4.”

A. Lee Parks, representing Powell, cited an earlier residency fight against Commissioner Robert Baker, who also had two homes, including one outside his district, and who initially had a homestead exemption on the wrong one. Baker won in the lower court and then at the Supreme Court, against an opponent represented by Parks.

“The standard is the officeholder’s intent,” Parks said.

Parks said the “any evidence” standard was “almost impossible” for Handel not to meet.

Parks said the court should consider the effect its decision would have on the election for a position he called one of the most important in the state.

“This election is under way,” he said. “Thousands of people have already voted.”