Conlon wins ballot fight against Handel
August 28, 2008 at 2:52 pm by Thomas Wheatley in NewsOne of the other less-publicized fights amidst all the November election brouhaha has been between Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel and Michelle Conlon, an independent candidate for state House District 80. In late July, the secretary threw out a petition Conlon circulated to be considered eligible to face Rep. Mike Jacobs, R-DeKalb, the incumbent. Conlon then appealed Handel’s decision in Fulton County Superior Court.
And now, according to her press release, she’s won. You’ll see her name on the ballot come November against Jacobs.
From a campaign release:
Michelle Conlon, Candidate for House District 80, has prevailed in her lawsuit to compel the Secretary of State to place Ms. Conlon on the ballot in November.
“This is exciting news not only for me but for the voters in the district who deserve a choice on the ballot. I am looking forward to moving past this distraction,” said Conlon.
…“It is unfortunate that it took a lawsuit to get the Secretary of State to abide by her statutory responsibility to review the petition, but we are pleased with the result,” said Ms. Conlon. “I look forward to campaigning on the issues that matter to residents of House District 80.”
Conlon will be listed on the ballot as an Independent Candidate; however, she plans to officially announce her victory at an Obama Acceptance Speech event Thursday evening at Galla’s Pizza. Conlon hopes her message will appeal to Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike.
“Mike Jacobs needs to be fired. This is not the guy we elected. And he has not given us the representation that we were promised. He switched parties’ mid-term, voted for predatory lending, to cut public education funds and for guns on MARTA. When your representative cannot decide who he is or want he wants, he is ineffective in representing you,” said Conlon.
Now that she is on the ballot, Conlon is optimistic regarding her chances in November. She notes: “More people signed my petition than voted for my opponent in his July Primary.”
Click here to visit her campaign website. The full release from the Conlon campaign is pasted after the jump.
Michelle Conlon, Candidate for House District 80, has prevailed in her lawsuit to compel the Secretary of State to place Ms. Conlon on the ballot in November.
“This is exciting news not only for me but for the voters in the district who deserve a choice on the ballot. I am looking forward to moving past this distraction,” said Conlon.
Ms. Conlon filed a nomination petition to appear on the ballot as an Independent candidate for State Representative for House District 80, which includes part of DeKalb County .
In a letter dated July 25, 2008 , the Secretary of State’s office notified Ms. Conlon that she did not qualify to appear on the ballot because her petition was 51 signatures short of the statutory minimum.
Ms. Conlon discovered through an Open Records Act request that the Secretary of State had failed to include 50 signatures that, by the Secretary of State’s own rules, should have counted. Thus her petition was at most one signature short of the minimum. Despite this single signature margin, the Secretary of State did nothing to evaluate the petition and did not hold a hearing required by Georgia law to give Ms. Conlon an opportunity to demonstrate the validity of the petition’s signatures.
Further review revealed that the petition was not deficient at all, but that signatures were improperly excluded where, for example, women signed in their own names but were registered under their husbands’ names, and signers of the petition went by their middle name instead of their first.
Ms. Conlon filed an action with the Fulton County Superior Court on July 30, 2008 , asking the Court to order the Secretary of State to include Ms. Conlon on the ballot for the election of a State Representative for H.D. 80.
The case was set for trial on Friday August 29, but on August 27, 2008 , the Secretary of State’s office sent a letter to Ms. Conlon reversing its earlier decision and informing her that she would appear on the ballot in November.
The letter explained that after further review, it was determined that Ms. Conlon’s nomination petitions contained at least 1,075 valid signatures, well over the required 1,027.
The case will be dismissed. Conlon was represented in the lawsuit by David Brackett and Jason Carter of Bondurant, Mixson and Elmore, LLP.
“It is unfortunate that it took a lawsuit to get the Secretary of State to abide by her statutory responsibility to review the petition, but we are pleased with the result,” said Ms. Conlon. “I look forward to campaigning on the issues that matter to residents of House District 80.”
Conlon will be listed on the ballot as an Independent Candidate; however, she plans to officially announce her victory at an Obama Acceptance Speech event Thursday evening at Galla’s Pizza. Conlon hopes her message will appeal to Democrats, Republicans and Independents alike.
“Mike Jacobs needs to be fired. This is not the guy we elected. And he has not given us the representation that we were promised. He switched parties’ mid-term, voted for predatory lending, to cut public education funds and for guns on MARTA. When your representative cannot decide who he is or want he wants, he is ineffective in representing you,” said Conlon.
Now that she is on the ballot, Conlon is optimistic regarding her chances in November. She notes: “More people signed my petition than voted for my opponent in his July Primary.”
To learn more about Michelle Conlon, her campaign and how you can get involved visit: www.campaignwindow.com/michelleconlon
Send to a friend:
August 29th, 2008 at 7:46 am
The Dekalb County is responsible for counting the signatures, not the SoS. Last time I looked that was a solidly blue county.