Home > Thinking Right > Archives > 2007 > November > 07
Wednesday, November 7, 2007
Hold the election, get ‘em out
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Sierra Leone, a West African country wracked by a 10-year civil war that ended in 2002 held its first elections in September since UN peacekeepers left in 2005.
The opposition party won. Within hours after returns were declared official, a new president, Ernest Bai Koroma, was sworn in.
There’s a lesson here for us.
An archiac horse-and-buggy system of elections dictates that newly-elected officials take office two months or more after results are known. Presumably the time is needed to allow office-holders who are defeated or retiring to finish up the affairs of the office while allowing the newcomer time to settle-up business affairs, hitch up the mules, and make the long arduous journey to Atlanta — or to the county seat.
And yet we have the example here of a nation so divided that a 10-year civil war ensued. To guard against futher bloodshed, three years of international peacekeepers were required. And yet within hours of the official results, the newly-elected president takes the oath of office.
It’s time for a change here. If a nation two years removed from peacekeepers and major American corporations are able to promptly install new leaders, Georgians can too.
In a number of local elections around Metro Atlanta, mayors lost or are in runoffs. In Avondale Estates, Jonesboro, Kennesaw and Lithonia, mayors were turned out. In three others — Norcross, Riverdale and Doraville — mayors were forced into runoffs. Doraville Mayor Ray Jenkins, most will recall, stirred controversy when he attempted to fire popular police chief and Iraqi veteran John King.
In Macon, a city of 94,000 located 90 minutes south of Atlanta, former State Rep. Robert Reichert, a Democrat, defeated a Republican challenger with 96 percent of the vote. He replaces Jack Ellis, who gained national attention for cozying up to Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez and for divisive long-running disputes with city council.
Election results that leave departing office-holders in place for months at the time serve no good purpose. The Constitution and local election law in Georgia should be brought into the new century. Defeated or retiring office-holders, including governors and others who hold statewide constitutional offices, should depart promptly after election results are declared official. Add a provision, if deemed useful, to pay them as consultants for up to 30 days, if they agree to cooperate on transition with their successors. Changing the timetable for Constitutional offices would, obviously, require a constitutional amendment. Others could be updated by general and local law.
Companies change CEOs overnight with no apparent difficulties. State and local governments should too.
