Qualifying is over for the November 8 special elections in Alto, Clarkesville, and Demorest. The qualifying period ended at noon on August 5 with seven candidates registering to run for four unexpired terms.
Carolyn Cabe is the only candidate to qualify for the Post 1 Alto Town Council seat. She previously ran for the seat in November but lost to Turner Griffith by one vote: Griffith then resigned in March. Debbie Turner qualified in the final hours to run for Alto’s Post 5 council seat, previously held by P.J. Huggins. Both elections are to fill unexpired terms through December 31, 2025.
The special election for Clarkesville City Council Post 2 is now a three-person race. John Lunsford added his name to the list of qualified candidates on Friday. Rick Wood and Brad Coppage qualified earlier in the week. The three are vying for the seat left open when Roxie Barron resigned. The winner will fill her unexpired term through December 31, 2023.
And, in Demorest, it’s a two-man race to fill the unexpired term of former city councilman Nathan Davis. Donnie Bennett is running to get his old job back. Bennett, a former Demorest councilman who John Popham defeated in 2016, is running against Jimmy L. Davis.
Nathan Davis resigned from the council earlier this year after announcing he was moving out of Demorest. Some publicly questioned whether he ever lived in the city. On his qualifying paperwork in 2019, he used both his parents’ address and former place of business. In 2020, two attempts to recall Nathan Davis and current councilman John Hendrix failed after county election supervisor Laurel Ellison threw out the recall petitions on technicalities.
The winner of November’s special election will fill Nathan Davis’ unexpired term through December 31, 2023.
There is still time for potential write-in candidates to enter the races. According to Ellison, write-in candidates may qualify no later than seven days after the close of the special election qualifying period.
