A Fayette resident has filed a complaint with the Georgia Secretary of State’s office claiming that a man running for district attorney of the Griffin Judicial Circuit may not live in Fayette County.

The candidate, Rudjard Hayes, told The Citizen Tuesday afternoon that he has lived in Tyrone since June of last year. Hayes is the only opponent running against current District Attorney Scott Ballard for the office, which prosecutes felony cases in Fayette, Spalding, Pike and Upson counties.

A candidate must live within one of the four counties to be eligible to serve as DA.

Hayes said he has all the proof necessary to show that he has lived in Fayette since June 2007 when he and his wife moved to Tyrone, including his voter registration papers and driver’s license. He also criticized the residency challenge as being an attempt to divert voters from the real issues in the campaign.

The complaint alleges problems with the homestead exemptions Hayes has sought, but the candidate says after his family moved to Tyrone he had the homestead exemption lifted from his Coweta home, which is currently being leased.

Hayes said the Georgia law on residency requirements for district attorneys merely states that they must be a resident of the county “at the time of election.” Hayes said he expected to prevail should a hearing on the matter be held by an administrative law judge as Georgia elections law provides.

Hayes said he expects to receive a homestead exemption for this year on his Tyrone home.

Hayes said he is not familiar with the man who filed the complaint, whose name was unavailable at press time Tuesday afternoon. But he felt confident in saying the complaint originated “with the other side,” in reference to his opponent, Ballard.

“I want to talk about the real issues. I want to debate: anytime, anywhere,” Hayes said, noting that some “petty issues” have been going on behind the scenes.

Hayes said Ballard has been late in filing all of his campaign finance disclosure reports and that there have been some issues between his and Ballard’s campaigns regarding signs.

About the complaint’s filing, Hayes replied that he was “disappointed, but certainly not surprised.”

“I fully expect to prevail in very short order if there’s going to be a hearing on it,” Hayes said.

Hayes previously worked as an assistant district attorney under Ballard and has said he resigned after disagreements over how the office was run, particularly when it comes to handling crime victims.

Hayes said he and his wife expressly moved to Fayette from Coweta so he could seek the district attorney post because of what he called “a lack of effectiveness and efficiency in the DA’s office.”

Hayes said he has not been made aware whether or not the Secretary of State’s office will be looking into the matter. He said the complainant must be an elector in the district, according to Georgia law.