ATLANTA– Two groups filed a lawsuit Wednesday seeking to overturn a law that extends the elected terms of Georgia’s public service commissioners, arguing that allowing the five Republicans to serve terms longer than six years violates the state constitution.
Georgia WAND Education Fund, Georgia Conservation Voters Education Fund and Brionte McCorkle, the conservation group’s executive director, filed the lawsuit in federal court in Atlanta. They allege that the law passed this year also violates their due process rights under the 14th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is being sued for overseeing elections.
The Public Service Commission regulates what Georgia Power Co. and some natural gas companies can charge fees. In recent years, Georgia Power, a unit of Atlanta-based Southern Co., has allowed to increase its ratesKim Scott, executive director of Georgia WAND, said voters should have a say in the rate increases.
“Our right to vote for people, commissioners, who will live up to and adhere to their mission of providing safe, reliable and fair energy, gas and telecom to the people of Georgia, has been taken away from us,” Scott said.
The commission elections were frozen after another lawsuit, in which McCorkle was one of four plaintiffs, alleged that the power of black voters was illegally watered down because the five commissioners are elected at the state level. A federal district court said such state-level votes were discriminatory, a landmark ruling if it stood. It would have mandated district-by-district elections, potentially opening challenges to state-elected bodies in other states with large black voters. But the 11th U.S. Court of Appeals overturned the ruling, and the U.S. Supreme Court declined to hear the case.
Expecting a court to resume elections after the 11th Circuit ruling, Georgia lawmakers this year two extra years added to the current terms of commissioners in the all-Republican body. Each will eventually return to six-year terms.
Plaintiffs argue that it is bitterly ironic that a lawsuit intended to impose greater representation on the board of directors has resulted in directors serving longer on the board, without any elections taking place at all.
The extra years could mean that a majority of the committee seats could be chosen at once when the election resumes, meaning that Democrats cannot seize power in a single election.
Commissioners Tim Echols and Fitz Johnson would running in 2022 but remain in commission today. The 11th Circuit ruled in April that the state could resume elections. But Raffensperger had already said it was too late to schedule an election for them and for Commissioner Tricia Pridemore, whose term expires this year.
Under the new law, Echols and Johnson would run for reelection in 2025. Johnson was appointed to the commission in 2021 and would have run for the final two years of his predecessor’s term in 2022 before running again in 2024. Instead, he would run again in 2026 for a six-year term. Echols would serve for five years, until 2030, and would go to the polls just twice in 14 years before resuming his regular six-year term.
Pridemore would have her term extended to 2026, for eight years. Commissioners Jason Shaw and Bubba McDonald, who were up for re-election in 2026, would instead serve until 2028. Their positions would then revert to six-year terms.
Bryan Sells, the attorney handling the lawsuit, said it’s common sense that a simple statute can’t override the Georgia Constitution. He said at least two previous federal cases have also held that constitutionally mandated terms can’t be extended or shortened.
“When the state violates the right to vote under state law, it also violates federal law and violates the federal right to due process,” Sells said.
Sells said Echols, Johnson and Pridemore should each be elected as soon as possible. He said the secretary of state should draw up a schedule of special party primaries and special general elections, with a runoff after each primary if necessary. Sells said the primaries could be held as early as November.
“The overall point is that the elections need to happen quickly,” Sells said.