(Editor’s note: The following article was written during our recent disruption of service, and first appeared in the Gwinnett Daily Post. It is presented today so that Forum readers will know of this situation. Meanwhile, other jurisdictions are calling upon the governor to veto this recently-passed law.–eeb)
APRIL 21, 2026 | The 2026 Georgia Legislature’s intentions may have been good, but their implementation on House Bill 369 was bad when it passed this week (recently).
The bill would require nonpartisan elections in five Metro Atlanta counties for the first time for county commission members, clerks of court, tax commissioner, and solicitor general. It would also include clerks of state court and county surveyors. Not included are sheriffs in these five counties. That would remain a partisan office.
Currently nonpartisan elections are required for judges and members of the Gwinnett School Board.
We’re not upset over having these offices being non-partisan. If it could cut all the party manipulating, political shenanigans and rigamarole out of party politics for these offices, that could be good.
But what we are most upset about is that the Legislature has deemed the timing to elect these candidates. They want this non-partisan election to take place during the General Primary!
What! That’s when the fewest voters go to the polls. The mighty Georgia General Assembly doesn’t realize that voting during the primary means that a majority of the voters will not have a choice for these local offices. That amounts to taking away the vote for many registered voters.
The people should rise up and demand that House Bill 369 not be enacted. However, since both houses of the Legislature have voted their approval of House Bill 369, the bill only awaits Governor Brian Kemp’s signature.
Veto the bill, Governor Kemp! Voters in five Metro Atlanta counties should flood the governor’s office asking him to veto House Bill 369. The governor should be sympathetic at the idea of attempting to restrict the number of voters in any election, especially at the level of government close to us, local offices.
Gwinnett legislators, in particular, should have understood the best and logical time to hold non-partisan elections. GwinnettForum has pointed out the wrongness of electing judges and school board members during the General Primary, since fewer people vote in the primary than in the General Election. Nonpartisan voting in the General Election has long been one of GwinnettForum’s Continuing Objectives, published in each issue.
There’s another element that is of concern in House Bill 369. As one old-time county lawyer would say when many issues were brought to him: “Hmmmm. Seems to me that there is a Constitutional issue here.” That simply meant that if a suit was brought, it might lose in court, but that he would see reason to appeal because it violated some element of the U.S. Constitution. Denying the most citizens to vote on local officials seems awfully close to unconstitutional to us.
Gwinnett County could well sue to block House Bill 369 because of the several questions it extends. Other Metro Atlanta might well join them in court.
Wider, even other counties in Georgia might see reason to join in such a suit. As it is now, these counties might themselves want nonpartisan elections for local offices. As it will be if House Bill 369 is signed into law, these counties would be prohibited, a seemingly unjust element.
We say again: voters should bombard Governor Kemp’s office with protest of this unreasonable bill.
As for our legislators, those who we can’t imagine would not want the best government by getting the most voters out to elect these offices, do you not remember what Abraham Lincoln pronounced: “Trust the people. Always trust the people.”
The way our legislators drew House Bill 369, it makes us wonder if they trust the people.
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