Say you want to run for elected state or local office in Georgia – but not as a candidate for the two major political parties. What do you do?
The first step an independent candidate must do to run for state or local office in Georgia, according to state election law, is to petition to be on the ballot.
That’s what Keith Higgins did in September 2020 after campaigning for the Brunswick-area District Attorney race amid widespread disapproval about the incumbent, Jackie Johnson, who is a fellow Republican. He eventually won and unseated Johnson, who is awaiting trial for allegedly trying to prevent Ahmaud Arbery’s killers from being arrested.
Like Higgins’ showed, a successful petition by an independent candidate needs signatures from local voters.
The number of required signatures varies for different offices. For state offices, a candidate needs 1% of the number of eligible registered voters in that office’s previous election. For any other office, the candidate needs 5%.
Each county and municipality has its own petition paperwork for candidates to fill out – there is no unified state form.
The upper portion of the form lists the name and title of the officer who will file the petition, the candidate’s name, profession, residence, anticipated office, political affiliation and the election they are running in.
The bottom or back of each form should have the written statement confirmed by oath or affirmation (known formally as an affidavit) of the person circulating the sheet.
This will confirm their address, that each signer manually signed with the full knowledge of the contents of the petition, that each signature was signed within 180 days and that to the best of the affiant’s knowledge, the signers are qualified registered voters of the state and correctly wrote their residence.
Signers of the petition must be registered and eligible to vote in the anticipated election. Every signer has to declare that they are a registered voter and are eligible to vote in the upcoming election for the listed office. The signer must also add their signature, address, city and county.
If a signer wants their signature removed, they must make that request before the petition is presented to an officer for filing.
For an office that has never had an election, the percentage is based on the total number of registered voters who would have qualified to vote in the previous election for that office.
In 2020, when Higgins first began campaigning, he was required to collect 5,038 valid signatures from registered eligible voters in the counties within the DA offices’ jurisdiction. But because of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Secretary of State reduced the required number of all independent candidates to 3,526.
Each candidate has 180 days maximum to collect the required number of signatures. Any signatures collected after that will not be counted. A petition also cannot be edited after its presentation for filing.
No notary public can sign the petition as an elector or serve as a circulator of any petition they have notarized. All sheets circulated or signed by the circulator’s affidavit notarized by a notary public of the elector will be rejected.
Petition candidates who are not nominees of a political body will be in the independent column of the ballot. Candidates for city offices can only be nominated by petitions if the city authorizes it.