--- title: HB 5. Decatur County; board of commissioners; change district residency requirements for candidates collection: bills id: 2025-2026/hb5 cite_as: HB 5, 2025-2026 Regular Session (Ga.) canonical_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb5 md_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb5.md text_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb5/text source_url: https://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/69285 date: 2025-05-13 status: passed corpus_version: bills-2026-08-28 license: Public record of the Georgia General Assembly, via LegiScan; see about.md publisher: Georgia Commons, an independent project of Georgia Civic Data. Not the State of Georgia. Not legal advice. up: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026.md previous: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb4.md next: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb6.md index: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/index.md omitted: votes and history omitted_chars: 879 omitted_url: https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb5.md?full=1 bill_number: HB 5 session: 2025-2026 Regular Session session_slug: 2025-2026 chamber: House bill_type: bill status_date: 2025-05-13 last_action: Effective Date 2025-05-13 sponsors: - Joe Campbell text_version: Enrolled has_text: true legiscan_url: https://legiscan.com/GA/bill/HB5/2025 upstream_id: 1916648 summaries_model: claude-sonnet-5 topic_tags: - Decatur County government - local election law - county commissioners - candidate residency requirements --- # HB 5. Decatur County; board of commissioners; change district residency requirements for candidates ## Text 25 LC 47 3159/AP House Bill 5 (AS PASSED HOUSE AND SENATE) By: Representative Campbell of the 171st A BILL TO BE ENTITLED AN ACT To amend an Act relating to the board of commissioners of Decat ur County, approved1 March 4, 1935 (Ga. L. 1935, p. 630), as amende d, particularly b y an Act approved2 May 6, 2015 (Ga. L. 2015, p. 3718), so as to change the district residency requirements for3 candidates for the office of commissioner; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting4 laws; and for other purposes.5 BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF GEORGIA:6 SECTION 1.7 An Act relating to the board of commissioners of Decatur County, approved March 4, 19358 (Ga. L. 1935, p. 630), as amended, particularly by an Act appro ved May 6, 20159 (Ga. L. 2015, p. 3718), is amended by revising Section 2 as follows:10 "SECTION 2.11 All members of the board of commissioners shall not be less than 21 years of age and shall12 be qualified electors of Decatur County. Each of the commissio ners shall have been a13 resident of his or her respective commission district for at least 12 months prior to the date14 of taking office. In the event that any member ceases to be a resident of his or her15 H. B. 5 - 1 - 25 LC 47 3159/AP respective commission district during his or her term of office, a vacancy shall be created16 and shall be filled in the manner hereinafter provided. Each o f the members shall be17 elected by the qualified voters of Decatur County residing with in his or her respective18 commission district. In all elections conducted pursuant to this Act, each candidate shall19 designate, at the time of qualifying, the district from which he or she offers as a candidate. 20 To be elected as a member of the board, a candidate must receiv e the highest number of21 votes cast for the seat he or she is seeking; and, at the same time, a candidate must receive22 a majority of the total votes cast for the election of a commis sioner to that seat. In the23 event no candidate for a particular seat receives a majority of the votes for the seat he or24 she is seeking, a run-off election shall be conducted for that particular seat. All members25 shall be nominated and elected in accordance with the provisions of Chapter 2 of Title 2126 of the O.C.G.A., the 'Georgia Election Code,' as now or hereafter amended."27 SECTION 2.28 All laws and parts of laws in conflict with this Act are repealed.29 H. B. 5 - 2 - ## Summaries written by Georgia Commons The following was written by claude-sonnet-5 from the text above and is not part of the bill. Quote the text, not the summary. House Bill 5 changes how long a candidate for the Decatur County Board of Commissioners must have lived in their commission district before running, shortening the residency requirement from prior law. ### Plain-language summary Decatur County's board of commissioners operates under a 1935 state law that has been amended several times, most recently in 2015. That law sets rules for who can run for and serve as a county commissioner, including how long a candidate must have lived in the district they want to represent. House Bill 5 rewrites Section 2 of that local Act. It keeps the requirement that commissioners be at least 21 years old and qualified voters of Decatur County, but it sets the district residency requirement for candidates at 12 months before taking office, rather than whatever earlier timeframe applied under the 2015 version. The bill also keeps existing rules on vacancies, majority-vote elections, run-offs, and use of Georgia's election code for nominations and elections. It repeals any conflicting laws. ### What it does - Rewrites Section 2 of Decatur County's 1935 commissioner law to require candidates to have lived in their commission district for at least 12 months before taking office. - Keeps the requirement that all board members be at least 21 years old and qualified electors of Decatur County. - Preserves the rule that a commissioner who stops living in their district during their term creates a vacancy to be filled under existing procedures. - Keeps existing election rules requiring a majority of votes cast, with a run-off if no candidate receives a majority. - Repeals any prior laws that conflict with the updated residency requirement. ### Who it affects Current and future candidates for the Decatur County Board of Commissioners, sitting commissioners, and Decatur County voters who elect commissioners by district are all affected by this change to local election law. ### Why it matters The residency requirement determines who is eligible to run for a Decatur County commission seat and how soon a new resident of a district could qualify as a candidate, which shapes the pool of people eligible to run in county elections. ### Key provisions - Section 1 revises Section 2 of the 1935 Decatur County commissioners Act to set the district residency requirement for candidates at 12 months before taking office. - Section 1 retains the minimum age of 21 and the requirement that commissioners be qualified electors of Decatur County. - Section 1 retains provisions on vacancies caused by a commissioner moving out of their district, majority-vote election requirements, and run-off elections. - Section 1 keeps the requirement that elections follow Georgia's Election Code (O.C.G.A. Title 21, Chapter 2). - Section 2 repeals all laws and parts of laws that conflict with this Act. ## Status - Status: Passed (2025-05-13) - Last action: Effective Date 2025-05-13 (2025-05-13) - Sponsors: Joe Campbell - Official page: https://www.legis.ga.gov/legislation/69285 > The history, votes, and amendments (879 characters) are at https://georgiacommons.org/bills/2025-2026/hb5.md?full=1