Georgia’s secretary of state is investigating allegations that David Dillie, a Democratic candidate for state House District 161, may have voted in two state primaries this year in a violation of state law.
Dillie, a 24-year-old mechanic for Gulfstream who lives in Effingham County, has denied the accusation, first reported by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, that he voted in both Georgia’s May primary and a month later in a primary in Nevada. Dillie lived in Nevada before returning to Coastal Georgia in 2024.
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Dillie, a third-generation Georgian, blamed youth and inexperience for the potential legal trouble. Under Georgia law, double-voting is a felony punishable with imprisonment and fine.
“I thought when you moved, your stuff gets canceled. That is not what happens,” Dillie told The Current GA. “No one mentioned” that the process is not automatic and that I would have to cancel my voter registration in Nevada, he said. “I’m young and, frankly, wasn’t knowledgeable,” he added.
Dillie is challenging Republican state lawmaker Bill Hitchens for the seat he has held since 2012 representing parts of Effingham, Bryan and Chatham counties. Statewide, Democrats have voiced optimism that they can flip the state House of Representatives in November and win control of the chamber for the first time in more than two decades.
Dillie’s outsider status helped him gain traction among voters amid widespread anger at established Republican leaders over the planned $20 billion OpenAI data center near Rincon.
As he jumped into the rigors of campaigning, Dillie said he did not look closely at his own voter registration details before the accusations cropped up.
He was a registered voter in Nevada, where he spent years working in construction in the Las Vegas area, he said. When he moved back to Georgia in September 2024, he registered to vote in the Peach State. But he did not proactively cancel his other registration, he said.
Under a state law passed in 2021, Nevada sends mail-in ballots to every registered voter — and Dillie cited that as the reason why a ballot there with his name on it would have been sent to his old address in the Los Vegas area.
A ballot bearing his name was returned and apparently counted in Nevada’s Republican primary, according to documents obtained by The Current. Dillie, however, says he did not fill out that Nevada ballot and does not know who did. His former residence is a home owned by his godfather.
Dillie said he does not know who submitted his Nevada ballot. . “As soon as I know you’ll know,” Dillie said. “I’m glad there is an investigation. I wish it would have been flagged sooner.”
The secretary of state’s office announced its investigation last week, but the press release did not indicate how long it would take to look into the matter.
“Voting in another state’s primary while claiming to be a legal Georgia resident is a very serious allegation,” Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a news release. “My office has opened an investigation to gather all the evidence, determine the facts and take appropriate legal action.”
Raffensperger gave no timeline for the completion of the investigation.
Hitchens, 79, is a retired U.S. Marine and Georgia State Patrol officer, and lives in Rincon, a few miles away from the planned OpenAI data center. He is also a close ally of House Speaker Jon Burns, who is also from Effingham County, something that has attracted ire of local voters mad about the proliferation of data centers in Georgia.
The Republican-led state legislature has failed in two successive years to pass regulation of data centers, despite more than two dozen bills seeking to put guard rails around the industry.
Dillie says he is confident of being cleared of any voter wrongdoing, and won’t be dropping out of the race to represent the district.
“I’m taking this one day at a time,” he said. “I’m not hiding. My opponent wants me to be disqualified. I want the voters to decide.”
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