Two candidates for clerk of Cobb County Superior Court will be allowed to stay on the July ballot despite challenges to their qualifications for the seat.
The county's Board of Elections voted 4-0 Monday to deny a challenge against Joan P. Davis that charged she should be disqualified from the race for misleading voters by listing her occupation as a lawyer even though she was disbarred by the state Supreme Court earlier this year.
Reading from a list of qualifications for the office, there is no qualification for a clerk candidate to hold a specific occupation to be elected, said the board's attorney, Gregg Litchfield, in his opinion before the vote. The board did vote to refer to the district attorney for a possible false statement investigation of Davis' filing forms.
"The important issue is that the challenge was thrown out and I am moving forward with my campaign," Davis said after the hearing. "They're saying a possible violation, and I don't see where there could be. I'm sure the [district attorney] has more important criminal issues to investigate."
Alan C. Manheim, an attorney for an east Cobb resident who filed the challenge, dropped the second portion of the challenge that initially charged Davis with misleading voters because her filing forms listed the same person as her potential chief deputy clerk as another candidate running against her. Manheim still referenced the issue because it signaled Davis' credibility, he said.
The chief deputy clerk is not an elected position, but local election rules require clerk candidates to disclose their selection for the job before the election. Davis listed current deputy Elva Dornbusch as her deputy selection, but Dornbusch, who currently holds that position with the court, never agreed to serve under Davis.
The board also threw out a second challenge against candidate Rebecca Keaton that charged she should be disqualified for filing qualifying papers on a different day than when she filed an affidavit listing herself as a possible chief deputy clerk appointee. The board's 4-0 vote to deny the challenge followed Litchfield's opinion that the requirement for the chief deputy designation is a local one and not part of state qualifications for the seat, and cannot be used to disqualify a candidate.
Davis' attorney unsuccessfully tried to get two of the board members to recuse themselves from the hearings Monday because they are listed as endorsements on Keaton's website. Elections board members are allowed to endorse candidates, Litchfield said.
The clerk’s race, usually an inconspicuous race, has heated up in Cobb this year with three candidates vying to fill the seat being vacated by retiring clerk Jay Stephenson. Stephenson has held the position for almost three decades. He is supporting Marietta attorney John Skelton in the race.
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