Election board sets leadership rules

As early voting is underway for the November election, the Macon-Bibb County Board of Elections approved the list of poll managers at Oct. 16’s meeting and solidified its customary, but not mandated, rotation for selecting board officers. 

The formal vote to formalize rotating the chairmanship every three years among Democrat, Republican and at-large members ends a monthslong quest to amend the bylaws, which was delayed by board member absences over the summer. 

For the last two months, unusually large numbers of people attended the meetings to give input and share concerns over a proposal that current chair, Republican Robert Abbott, initially put forth that stretched out the rotation to five years.

After consulting other counties’ procedures, Abbott suggested all four partisan members serve first. 

By law, the Macon-Bibb County Board of Elections consists of two members selected by each of the top two political parties represented in the Georgia General Assembly as of the last general election — traditionally Republican and Democratic. Only Abbott and fellow Republican Barbara Boyer preferred the rotation be Democrat 1, Republican 1, Democrat 2, Republican 2 and then the at-large representative. 

The county commission selects that fifth member from a list of nominees agreed upon by the four partisan members of the board. The law does not specify that the fifth member be independent or nonpartisan.

If the board deadlocks on nominees, as it did this year, the county government body can appoint someone within 60 days of the vacancy. They did not do that this year, so Mike Kaplan continues to serve in that position.

Although it was Kaplan’s turn to chair the board, when it came time to elect officers in May, he did not know if the county would replace him, so Kaplan nominated Abbott, the senior Republican who succeeded Democrat Karen Evans, who seconded Abbott’s nomination. 

Democrat Tom Ellington then suggested the bylaws change to maintain the rotation going forward. 

The vice chair also cannot be a member of the same party as the chair.

During the Oct. 16 meeting, the board also explained that under state law, officers of local political party organizations may not chair the board but are eligible to serve.

Civic Journalism Senior Fellow Liz Fabian covers Macon-Bibb County government entities for The Macon Newsroom.