Court upholds disqualification for BOE seat

Any remote chance Greg Powers had for getting re-elected to the Fayette County Board of Education has essentially evaporated.

The Georgia Court of Appeals denied Powers’ petition for an appeal Thursday, four days into the early voting period and just in time for the election. Voters streaming into the Fayette Board of Elections office are reminded by signs that any vote for Powers and another disqualified candidate, Kay Seabolt, will not count.

Both candidates’ names still appear on the electronic voting machines and paper absentee ballots because there was not enough time to change them after they were declared ineligible, elections officials said.

The appeals court upheld the decision of the elections board, which was subsequently upheld by Fayette Superior Court Judge Tommy Hankinson. The board ruled that Powers was living outside of the geographical district for his current post, the same one he’s seeking re-election to.

The decision was made after a hearing in which Powers represented himself and several of his neighbors said they hadn’t seen him at all at his home on Antebellum Way in Fayetteville. Powers admitted that his wife and daughter have moved to a new home in Brooks, and he didn’t plan to live the entire next four years of his term in the Fayetteville home.

Judge Hankinson cited the latter as one of the main reasons for denying Powers’ appeal: because Georgia law requires candidates to intend on living at the same address for the near future to label it as their “domicile.”

The text of the appeals court decision was unavailable immediately at press time Friday afternoon. Powers also could not be reached before the paper went to press.

Seabolt had qualified for the other board of education seat, but the elections board disqualified her because at the time she filed, she was working as a part-time employee for the school system. She appealed the decision initially, but declined to appeal a second time in the face of Hankinson’s ruling against her.

The elections board was represented by County Attorney Dennis Davenport in both cases.

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