PEACH COUNTY, Ga. — Peach County voters are electing a new tax commissioner after long-time incumbent W.L. Brown, (D) died months after the May primaries.
Brown ran without a challenger from either party, so democrat Angela Howard stepped up as successor to his seat. Now, Howard is on the ballot for a shot at her own term.
The elections office is calling it a special primary and is offering the race on a democratic ballot. Peach County GOP members say it's an act of voter disenfranchisement, so 13WMAZ set out to find out why.
Peach County Republican Chairman Tim Waters says the ballots shouldn't be labeled as non-partisan and democrat if there isn't a republican ballot.
"It should have been just the tax commissioner and then the general election as it's normally held, which is everybody on the left and right," Waters said.
So when voters head to the polls, they'll have a choice between a democratic and nonpartisan ballot. Both ballots include all races included in the general election but because the special primary consist of a democratic candidate, it's listed as a democrat ballot.
The county's interim elections supervisor, Anthony Sallette, said choosing the democratic ballot doesn't mean a voter is affiliating with the party, it's just an opportunity to vote for the tax commissioner candidate.
"It doesn't mean you're nonpartisan, it doesn't mean you're republican," Sallette said. "You're still gonna get the general election ballot, you just get the tax commission race added on to it."
State election law states if a candidate dies after the primary and no one else qualified to run, the county must have a special primary but only candidates in the deceased's party can run. In this case, Howard is on the ballot.
Despite the standing concerns, Waters said he encourages his fellow party members to vote.
"I despise what happened here and we need to hold the people accountable that did this and didn't do what was right, but you need to vote, period," Waters said.
Waters said he's taken his concerns to the county commissioners and filed a complaint through the state board of elections.