The special election to fill the Sandy Springs City Council’s vacant District 3 seat will be held Tues., May 24.
That is the same date as the state primary election. However, all city special election voting on Election Day will be done at a single, separate voting place: the so-called Round Building in Hammond Park, 6005 Glenridge Drive. That means people wanting to vote in both the city election and the state primary will have to visit two different polling places that day.
The city has also set early voting to run May 2-20 at the county’s North Fulton Annex, 7741 Roswell Road. The city may expand the early voting dates after City Council member Andy Bauman requested a review of the feasibility. Absentee balloting is also available.
For candidates, the qualifying period is April 13-15.
For full details about how the election will work and District 3’s location, see the city’s voting page at sandyspringsga.gov/vote.
The city has to run the election by itself, separately from the primary, because state law requires 90-day notice to prepare for its official help. Another result is that all special election voting will be done on paper ballots. The election will cost the city about $72,000 and an additional $35,000 if a run-off is required, according to City Manager John McDonough.
Graham McDonald resigned from the District 3 seat earlier this month to run for a state House seat. The special election is required because he had more than a year remaining in his term.
The City Council approved the election date at a March 29 meeting. The council could have chosen the November general election date instead, which would have been cheaper and allowed for the county to run the polling. But the council decided that filling the seat as soon as possible was worth the extra money and effort.
$72,000 and gas money for 90,000 folks. Perhaps if the gondola was in place we could all get to two polling places.