Gwinnett’s election board voted last week to rescind a policy prohibiting the county from running municipal elections, a step that some hope could lead to less confusing election days for residents of local cities.
The policy change does not mandate officials from Gwinnett — the only major metro Atlanta county that doesn’t administer elections for at least some of the cities within its bounds — to do so. But it does remove a significant barrier for future conversations along those lines.
Peachtree Corners City Councilman Eric Christ pushed for the change after seeing local residents forced to vote at one place for county, state and federal races, then head to another polling place to cast ballots for mayor, city council and other local matters.
Christ believes that such an arrangement breeds confusion and has the potential to limit voter participation.
It may still be a tough sell on the county level.
Outgoing elections supervisor Lynn Ledford told the AJC earlier this year that she’s agnostic to the idea, but that fears about “complication of the ballot” and an already shorthanded staff have driven past resistance to the idea.
Gwinnett Commission Chairman Charlotte Nash said the idea has been evaluated before.
“The primary findings of earlier evaluations are that having the county handle city elections is more confusing to city voters and more costly for the cities,” Nash said in May.
Typically, cities would compensate the county for the cost of running their election or adding local issues to the larger ballot.
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