Habersham County must pay former State Rep. Dan Gasaway $550 to cover litigation costs associated with the second of two lawsuits he filed over voting irregularities in the House District 28 Republican primary.
Gasaway had sought to recoup more than $100,000 in attorneys’ fees but a judge denied his request after a hearing on June 17 in Banks County Superior Court. That hearing was the last round in a year-long legal battle over the House race between Gasaway and former Banks County school superintendent Chris Erwin.
Gasaway can’t collect legal fees after twice overturning primary election
The two initially faced off at the polls in the May 22, 2018, primary. Erwin won the race this past April after two lawsuits and three elections.
Cost to taxpayers & electoral impact
The House District 28 lawsuits and special elections cost Habersham County taxpayers $58,966, according to county manager Phil Sutton. The county spent $41,235 on legal representation and $17,181 on the two special elections that were held. The overall sum also includes Habersham County’s share of the litigation costs Senior Judge David Sweat awarded to Gasaway.
While Judge Sweat’s refusal to award attorneys’ fees significantly minimized the financial impact on the county, the electoral impact of the lawsuits is significant.
After the first lawsuit was filed, Habersham County election officials reassigned more than 400 voters whom they had placed in the wrong state House districts. Also, Carole Lonergan resigned from the Habersham County Elections Board after it was revealed she had actively campaigned against Gasaway.
After the second lawsuit, election officials implemented procedures to guard against the kind of illegal voting that ultimately cost Gasaway his House seat.
Gasaway lost the first do-over election on December 4, 2018, by two votes. The court ruled that three of the votes cast against him were illegal because the voters no longer lived in the county or district where they voted. Erwin refused to concede. The judge ordered another election and Erwin won the second do-over with 75% of the vote.
Safeguarding future elections
“We are now in a position to ensure voter’s addresses can be verified and cross-checked across multiple sources of information,” Sutton tells Now Habersham. He points out three ways in which this will be achieved:
1. We have a procedure to cross-check the voter registration list with our geographic information system to ensure we have a second verification of the location of the voter’s residence. This procedure is confirmed before every election, whether it be a federal/state/county/municipal election.
2. The Secretary of State’s Office has put into place a new procedure for the National Change of Address Confirmation Notices, allowing us to process more voter’s addresses when the voter does not return the confirmation notice with their new address to the Elections & Voter Registration office.
3. Based on the Judge’s ruling, we will go above and beyond the requirement of Georgia Election Law. The poll workers will continue to give a change of address form to every voter who reports a different address than the official registered address at the voting precinct and will make sure they complete the change of address form before they vote. This is beyond what is required in Georgia election law, however, it is necessary for us to comply with Judge Sweat’s ruling in the Gasaway suit.
The Georgia Secretary of State’s office launched two investigations into voting irregularities in Habersham County. State Election Director Chris Harvey previously said the results of those investigations will be made public once the investigations are complete.
