HOUSTON COUNTY, Ga. — Houston County Sheriff Cullen Talton — the longest-serving sheriff in America — died on Saturday after nearly 52 years leading the sheriff's office. Talton had entered hospice on Wednesday.
But with election day just under a month away, Georgia law has specific guidelines for what happens when a sheriff dies while in office.
Under Georgia Code § 15-16-8, when the sheriff dies, the sheriff's office chief deputy becomes the local sheriff, unless there is a local law saying otherwise. In Houston County, that means Chief Deputy Billy Rape is in charge after Talton's death, serving as interim sheriff of Houston County.
The law says that Rape will finish out Talton's last term because there are less than six months before his time in office ends.
Had it been over six months since Talton's term ended, the election superintendent could have called for a special election to elect the new sheriff.
But with the time between his term ending being less than six months, Georgia law says that Rape will serve as the sheriff until the people have voted and a new sheriff has been elected and sworn into office.
If there was not a chief deputy, the law also had a procedure for what happened then. In that situation, the county probate judge then is empowered to "appoint a qualified person to serve as the interim sheriff."
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