CopyPublished | Supreme Court of Georgia | Sep 25, 2024
...dependent
candidate running for the office of President of the United States;
and, under OCGA §
21-2-132 (e), each presidential elector is
therefore required to file a nomination petition in his or her own
name “in the form prescribed in Code Section
21-2-170.” We further
hold that if no presidential elector for an independent candidate for
President files such a petition for a particular election, no elector
has qualified as a candidate for the office of presidential elector, and
s...
...On August 26, 2024, the Chief ALJ issued separate
Initial Decisions concluding that “to qualify as a candidate for the
office of presidential elector, each candidate for that office . . . is
required to timely file ‘a nomination petition in the form prescribed
in Code Section
21-2-170.’” Because none of West’s electors and none
of De la Cruz’s electors had met this requirement, none were
“qualified as candidates for the office of presidential elector.”
3 OCGA §
21-2-5 (b) provides in relevan...
...to submit nomination petitions in their own names, he could not
require the West or De la Cruz electors to also submit nomination
4 The Green Party injunction stated: the Secretary of State “is
PERMANENTLY ENJOINED from enforcing the one percent signature
requirement in O.C.G.A. §
21-2-170 against presidential candidates....
...judges of the Fulton
County Superior Court reversed the Secretary of State.5 Each judge
determined that (1) OCGA §
21-2-132 requires a candidate for the
office of presidential elector to file a nomination petition in the form
prescribed by OCGA §
21-2-170; (2) the injunction imposed by a
5 The Georgia Republican Party sought, and was granted, intervention
pursuant to OCGA §
9-11-24 in Pigg v....
...De la Cruz’s
interests are adequately protected by her candidates for presidential electors,
who are Respondents herein.”
8
federal district court in Green Party applies only to the signature
requirement in OCGA §
21-2-170 (b) and does not prevent the
Secretary of State from requiring presidential electors to file
nomination petitions; and (3) neither West’s nor De la Cruz’s
electors had properly qualified to place their presidential candidate
on th...
...on the
fourth Monday in June immediately prior to the election
and no later than 12:00 Noon on the second Tuesday in
July immediately prior to the election, file with the same
official with whom he or she filed his or her notice of
candidacy a nomination petition in the form prescribed in
Code Section
21-2-170 ....
...on the fourth Monday
in June immediately prior to the election and no later than 12:00
Noon on the second Tuesday in July immediately prior to the
election, file with the same official with whom he or she filed his
or her notice of candidacy a nomination petition in the form
prescribed in Code Section
21-2-170, except that such petition shall
not be required if such candidate is:
(1) A nominee of a political party for the office of
presidential elector when such party has held a national
conv...
...See
OCGA §
21-2-132 (e).
As a result, under OCGA §
21-2-132 (e)—the application of
which is predicated on a candidate being “required to file a notice of
candidacy” by OCGA §
21-2-132—each candidate for presidential
elector is required to file “a nomination petition in the form
prescribed in Code Section
21-2-170.” See OCGA §
21-2-132 (e).11
(b) The linchpin of our statutory analysis is that presidential
ballot shall file a notice of his or her candidacy, giving his or her
name, residence address, and the office he or...
...Georgia Code for almost 100 years. See, e.g., Ga. L. 1929, p. 339, § 2 (referring
to “candidates for presidential electors” in the context of regulations pertaining
to voting machines).
22
(c) The Secretary’s argument that OCGA §
21-2-170 requires a
different construction of OCGA §
21-2-132 (e) likewise fails. The
Secretary contends that presidential electors are not required to file
nomination petitions because OCGA §
21-2-170 does not state that
independent candidates for President must submit separate
nomination petitions for individual presidential electors, and
because OCGA §
21-2-170 (c) suggests that presidential electors for
independent candidates are not required to file nomination
petitions.
The Secretary’s first argument gets the statutory scheme
backwards because OCGA §
21-2-132 (e), not OCGA §
21-2-170,
speaks to who must file a nomination petition to ensure that an
independent candidate for President appears on the Georgia ballot;
OCGA §
21-2-170 merely prescribes the form of the nomination
petitions required by OCGA §
21-2-132 (e).15 See OCGA §
21-2-132
15 We need not resolve the West electors’ claim that OCGA §
21-2-170
(b)’s reference to a signature requirement for voters “eligible to vote in the last
election for the filling of the office the candidate is seeking” does not refer to
the office of candidate for presidential elector....
...Because no presidential elector
23
(e) (candidates required to file a notice of candidacy must file a
nomination petition “in the form prescribed in Code Section 21-2-
170”). And the Secretary’s second argument fails because the only
portion of OCGA §
21-2-170 (c) he cites lays out an exception for
political bodies,16 and that exception does nothing to change
statutory requirements for electors for independent candidates for
President. See OCGA §
21-2-170 (c) (“except any political body
seeking to have the names of its candidates for the offices of
presidential electors placed upon the ballot through nomination
petitions shall ....
...compile its petitions so that the entire slate of
candidates of such body for such office shall be listed together on the
same petition”) (emphasis added).17
filed a nomination petition in these cases, there is no question to be decided
about how the signature requirements in OCGA §
21-2-170 (b) would apply to
such a petition.
16 The Georgia Election Code defines a “political body” as “any political
organization other than a political party.” OCGA §
21-2-2 (23)....
...The Code
defines “independent” as “a person unaffiliated with any political party or body
and includes candidates in a special election for a partisan office for which
there has not been a prior special primary.” OCGA §
21-2-2 (10).
17 The full text of OCGA §
21-2-170 (c) reads:
Each person signing a nomination petition shall declare
24
(d) A final theory advanced by some of the Appellants also fails.
They contend that the Election Code does no...
...required to file nomination petitions under OCGA §
21-2-132 (e), and
are required to do so “in the form prescribed in Code Section 21-2-
170,” then the Secretary’s enforcement of the nomination-petition
signature requirement set forth in OCGA §
21-2-170 (b) will run
afoul of the injunction a federal district court entered with respect
to OCGA §
21-2-170 (b) in Green Party, 171 FSupp.3d at 1374.19
Not so. In Green Party, the district court permanently enjoined
Georgia’s Secretary of State from “enforcing the one percent
signature requirement in O.C.G.A. §
21-2-170 against presidential
candidates,” and as an “interim measure” reduced the number of
valid signatures required on a nomination petition submitted by a
19 Indeed, the Secretary’s Final Decisions in the West and D...
...Assembly amended OCGA §
21-2-132 (d) (1) in 2017 and enacted
OCGA § 21-2-132.1 in 2019, pertained to requirements for
nomination petitions filed by “independent candidate[s] for
President or a candidate for President representing a ‘political
body’” under OCGA §
21-2-170; it did not evaluate or decide any
issue related to nomination-petition requirements for presidential
electors....
...contend “that does not end the inquiry.” They and the other
Appellants protest that all of the same constitutional concerns that
animated the federal district court’s injunction in Green Party are
still present here, because applying a signature requirement under
OCGA §
21-2-170 to presidential electors instead of to independent
candidates for President is a distinction without a difference....
