SB14: SB14 Elections; the nonpartisan election of district attorneys and solicitors-general of state courts; authorize the General Assembly

Under current Georgia law, the General Assembly can pass local Acts letting certain local offices, such as solicitors-general of state courts, county judicial offices, local school board seats, and consolidated government offices, be elected in nonpartisan elections rather than through party primaries. District attorneys are not currently included in that list. This bill adds the office of district attorney to the list of offices the General Assembly may designate for nonpartisan elections through a local Act. It also updates the candidate qualifying rules (O.C.G.A. § 21-2-132) so that a district attorney candidate covered by such a local Act follows the same nonpartisan filing process, with a filing window starting the Monday of the eleventh week before the election and closing the following Friday at noon. Section 2 revises the general nonpartisan election authorization statute (O.C.G.A. § 21-2-139) to include district attorney among the offices eligible for this treatment. Any conflicting laws would be repealed.

• Adds the office of district attorney to the list of local offices the General Assembly may allow to be filled through nonpartisan elections via a local Act.
• Revises the candidate filing rules (O.C.G.A. § 21-2-132) to cover district attorney candidates running in a nonpartisan election created by local Act.
• Sets a specific filing window for such candidates: starting 9:00 a.m. the Monday of the eleventh week before the election and ending noon the following Friday.
• Amends the general nonpartisan election statute (O.C.G.A. § 21-2-139) so district attorney elections, when authorized locally, follow the same procedures as other nonpartisan county and judicial elections.
• Repeals any existing state laws that conflict with these changes.

District attorneys and candidates for that office, solicitors-general of state courts, county election superintendents and the Secretary of State's office, and voters in judicial circuits where the General Assembly later passes a local Act adopting nonpartisan district attorney elections.

If the General Assembly later passes local Acts using this new authority, voters in those judicial circuits could choose their district attorney without regard to party affiliation on the ballot, changing how these prosecutors are nominated and elected compared to the current partisan primary system.

• Section 1 revises O.C.G.A. § 21-2-132(c)(1)-(2) to add district attorney candidates covered by a local nonpartisan election Act to the existing candidate filing procedures.
• Section 1 sets the filing period as no earlier than 9:00 a.m. the Monday of the eleventh week before the election and no later than noon the following Friday.
• Section 2 revises O.C.G.A. § 21-2-139(a) to add the office of district attorney to the offices the General Assembly may designate by local Act for nonpartisan election.
• Section 2 clarifies that offices covered by such local Acts are elected in nonpartisan elections held with the general primary in even-numbered years, without a separate nonpartisan primary.
• Section 3 repeals any state laws that conflict with the bill.

1. 2025-01-16Senate Read and Referred (Senate)
2. 2025-01-15Senate Hopper (Senate)

• Ed Setzler (R, SD-037)Primary sponsor
• Clint Dixon (R, SD-045)
• John Albers (R, SD-056)
• Shawn Still (R, SD-048)
• Kay Kirkpatrick (R, SD-032)

• district attorneys
• election rules
• nonpartisan elections
• solicitors-general
• judicial elections