A Georgia attorney accused of living in Tennessee has won an open seat on the Georgia Court of Appeals as an elector continues a bid to prove he’s ineligible for office.
Preliminary results show that Jeff Davis won 57% of the 1.1 million votes counted in Tuesday’s nonpartisan election to replace Judge Yvette Miller, who is retiring. His only opponent in the race was Atlanta attorney Tabitha Ponder.
Davis, a former director of Georgia’s judicial watchdog, says he’s maintained a “legal residence” in Georgia since 1988, though he spent a significant portion of the last two years in Chattanooga, where his sister and his wife live.
Elector Randolph Frails, an Augusta attorney, claims Davis should be disqualified as a candidate, alleging Davis’ actual residence is in Chattanooga with his wife. Frails accuses Davis of falsely swearing on an election qualification form that he spent the previous year living in a two-bedroom Atlanta apartment with his two adult sons.
In a blow to that case, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger decided on May 16 that Davis is a Georgia resident and was at the time of qualifying. His ruling was based on hours of testimony and other evidence presented in April to Judge Stephanie Howells of the Georgia Office of State Administrative Hearings.
Howells had ruled that Frails’ challenge was premature because it only mattered that Davis was a Georgia resident at the time of the election. She found some merit in the case, saying Davis’ assertion that he lived in the Atlanta apartment, to which he did not have a key or access card, “strains credulity.”
But Raffensperger said Howells misapplied the legal standard for determining residency. He noted that Davis has exclusively voted, paid taxes and practiced law in Georgia while also maintaining a Georgia driver’s license.
Now a Fulton County judge is scheduled to consider Frails’ attempt to stay the certification of the election. Julie Oinonen, an attorney for Frails, said Davis should be disqualified based on his residency as well as his alleged “false swearing.”
Bryan Tyson, an attorney for Davis, said there’s no basis for a judge to overturn the decisions of Howells and Raffensperger striking Frails’ challenge, or to delay the election certification process.
“The people have resoundingly elected Jeff to serve on the Court of Appeals and that judgment should not be reversed by the courts,” he said.
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