In a packed courtroom, lawyers for Cobb County, the county’s elections board and resident Larry Savage argued Wednesday over the legality of new Board of Commissioners electoral maps.
Savage is seeking a temporary restraining order against the commission district boundaries, which took effect Jan. 1 — even though the county’s November elections were held with different boundaries that the state Legislature approved last year.
Wednesday’s hearing in Cobb County Superior Court was to argue over the temporary restraining order, not the merits of Savage’s entire lawsuit against the maps. That case will proceed in the coming months, whether or not Judge Ann B. Harris grants the order. Harris said Wednesday she expected to have a decision “shortly.”
If the judge grants the temporary restraining order, the county argued, District 2 Commissioner Jerica Richardson would immediately lose her seat in the middle of her term.
“I didn’t come here today to try to kick a commissioner out of their district,” Savage’s lawyer, Jason Thompson, told the judge. “Why should they be rewarded for doing the wrong thing?”
The case has widespread implications for local governments all over the state that have clashed with the Legislature over redistricting.
Local redistricting has typically been decided by state lawmakers, who have generally deferred to legislators from the county in question. But last year, Republican majorities in the state House and Senate overrode local delegations in Cobb, Gwinnett and other counties that recently shifted from Republican to Democratic control, sparking outrage.
The Legislature’s map for the Cobb County Board of Commissioners strengthened Republican districts and drew Richardson out of hers.
The Cobb commission amended the map to reflect the boundaries the local Democratic majority proposed in the first place. Commissioners said the state’s home rule statute gave them the authority. Home rule gives counties the abilities to pass laws that govern themselves and amend or repeal local laws from the Legislature.
Savage, who lives in disputed territory and has unsuccessfully run for county commission chair, sued the Cobb County Board of Elections last month to challenge the legality of the commission’s map. Attorneys for the Cobb County law department intervened to defend the map, which Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office and the Office of Legislative Counsel have both opined is illegal.
Most of the county commissioners sat in the audience at Wednesday’s hearing. Richardson declined to comment.
If Harris grants Savage’s requested restraining order, the county will likely hold a special election to fill the District 2 seat. It is unclear what would happen in that event if the county were to later win the underlying case.
“I’m envisioning, potentially, two special elections down the road, is one of things I’m concerned about,” Harris said.
That would cause the county, rather than Savage, the kind of irreparable harm that justifies a temporary restraining order, said Daniel White, attorney for the Cobb elections board.
“Let’s see if we can pump the brakes and brief this in a regular manner,” he said.
Savage and county lawyers will submit briefs arguing whether Savage has standing to sue, whether the elections board is protected by sovereign immunity and whether the county commission acted constitutionally under the home rule law. Harris said she wants another round of oral arguments on the merits of the case.
The home rule amendment prevents counties from taking actions that affect any elected county office or the procedure for election or appointment. Liz Monyak, an attorney for Cobb County, said those exclusions do not pertain to redistricting because it affects officers rather than the offices they hold and “a map is not a procedure.”
After the hearing, Savage said he asked for the temporary restraining order because election controversies hurt citizens.
“I think there’s a potential here for harm if we don’t get this right,” he said.
Harris told the attorneys she wanted to move the case along as quickly as possible.
“I suspect no matter what I decide, whoever’s not happy with it’s going to appeal it.”
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