FORT VALLEY, Ga. — For the last four years, Wade Yoder has served on the Peach County commission for Post 5. With election coming up in November, people in Peach County are questioning his residency, which is listed as 110 Commercial Heights.
Al Sanders is just one person in a group who sent a complaint to the Peach County Board of Elections asking to reconsider Yoder as a candidate in the upcoming election.
"It's all about the law making sure that we all abide by the law," he says.
"The law states that you have to live in a residential property instead of a commercial property and which he lives in a commercial property."
Sanders is referring to the county commissioner qualifications laid out by the state, one of them being the requirement that says you must be a resident of the county and live somewhere considered permanent.
Yoder says he checks both of these boxes, just like he did back in 2016 when he was first elected.
"I got one bed, that's it, that's the only place I sleep. People can see my vehicle parked in the back side of my building under my carport. I'm living in the same place I've lived in for the last 14 years," Yoder says.
Yoder says he also pays two separate utility bills every month to the city of Fort Valley.
"Little less than 800 square feet, so that's a residential utility bill that I pay for that and then the other is business, it's two different rates and also two different bills that I pay," he says.
Yoder says he has been cooperating with both the board of elections and the Secretary of State's office and he's willing to provide any documentation necessary to show he's qualified.
Yoder is running as the incumbent against challenger Laronda Eason in November election.
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