Demorest City Council candidate Lawrence Bridges has officially dropped out of the race for a seat on the city council.
On Tuesday, Oct. 19, just one day after announcing his intention to do so and two weeks before election day, the Habersham County Board of Elections notified the public that Bridges had officially withdrawn his candidacy.
In a statement to Now Habersham, Bridges says: “After long consideration and other business and career opportunities on the near horizon, I felt it was best for me to pull out of the race for Demorest City Council. I’m confident that the city will be in good hands with now incoming leadership.”
This was Bridges’ first time running for the council but he has been politically active in the town as a business owner and a vocal critic of the outgoing mayor. Bridges owns a coffee house and bar and serves on the Demorest Downtown Development Authority.
At the outset, Mayor Rick Austin publicly questioned whether Bridges was qualified to run for city council. The city charter requires candidates to be a resident for 12 months prior to the date of the election and it remains unclear whether Bridges fulfilled that requirement.
Public documents show the apartment Bridges claims to live in above his place of business on Georgia Street was never brought up to code and, if he does reside there, it’s illegal. In addition, he lists his residential address as 101 Common Street which Now Habersham confirmed is not recognized by either the U.S. Post Office in Demorest or Habersham E-911.
While Bridges’ withdrawal from the race, for now, makes moot the issue of his residency, it also could cancel out some voters.
As of October 19th, 32 voters had cast early in-person ballots in the Demorest election and the elections office had issued 12 absentee by-mail ballots.
“Five of those [absentee ballots] were sent out today with the withdrawal notice inside the envelopes with the ballots,” says Habersham County Election Supervisor Laurel Ellison. “We placed the withdrawal notice at the Ruby Fulbright Aquatic Center on the doors, check-in tables and in all of the voting booths around Noon today.”
Any votes cast for Bridges will not be counted and he will not be listed on the final election results on November 2, says Ellison.
Three candidates — incumbents Shawn Allen and Jim Welborn and challenger Roy Andrew Ferguson — remain in the running for two of the city’s four at-large council seats.
