Early voting begins Sept. 9 for Sapelo election

McIntosh County residents are scheduled to head to the polls Oct. 1 to vote on a single issue. The question on the ballot will be: “Shall the Action of the Board of Commissioners of McIntosh County, Georgia, amending the McIntosh County Code of Ordinances Appendix C Sec. 219 HH Hog Hammock District of the McIntosh County Ordinance be repealed?”

Against the stated concerns of scores of residents who packed its meeting, the county commission voted in September, 2023, to rezone Hog Hammock, also known as Hogg Hummock, to allow larger and taller houses in the last remaining Gullah-Geechee settlement on a Georgia barrier island. Black residents fear the rezoning will result in rising property values and higher taxes that will force them off the land their ancestors once worked as enslaved people brought there from West Africa.

“We are the last Gullah-Geechee community on the Georgia coast of our kind,” said Josiah “Jazz” Watts, a Sapelo descendant who works on environmental justice issues for One Hundred Miles. “They should be finding more ways to protect us than to help facilitate zoning that would result in our removal.”

Shortly after the new zoning was enacted, a consortium of nonprofits called “Keep Sapelo Geechee” launched the effort to retract it. Using the home rule provision of the Georgia Constitution they collected enough signatures to force a referendum on the issue.

Important Sapelo referendum dates

Sept. 9, 2024: Early voting begins

Sept. 20, 2024: Last day to request absentee ballot.

Oct. 1, 2024: Referendum at all polling stations.

McIntosh County Probate Judge Harold Webster approved the petition in July. He set the vote for Oct. 1. Early voting will begin Sept. 9.

As the legal organ of the county, the weekly Darien News has published the legal notice of the election three times, beginning Aug. 1, 2024. Those notices are cataloged at the Georgia public notice website.

Keep Sapelo Geechee has printed 200 yard signs encouraging a “yes” vote and has begun distributing them. Sapelo Island Cultural And Revitalization Society board member Courtney McGill, a Sapelo descendant designed the signs, which feature a sweetgrass basket, a traditional craft still produced on Sapelo.

In late July the county commission filed a request to stop the election , challenging its own probate judge and citizens. The circuit of five judges set to hear the case then recused themselves. Superior Court Senior Judge Gary C. McCorvey of the Tifton Circuit has been assigned to hear it.

The McIntosh Board of Elections joined the probate judge as a defendant in the case. Attorney Jason Nix said doing so will provide direction from the superior court as to how the board should proceed.

“That’s basically the entire reason we are joining the case,” Nix wrote in an email to The Current.

But litigation isn’t quick, Nix said.

“As I stated to the board, I do not expect us to have a final answer about the legality of the election until long after the election has occurred,” Nix wrote. “I am hopeful and confident that we will hear something from the court before the election happens. As I discussed at the board meeting, we have to continue to move forward for an October 1st election until and unless directed otherwise by the Superior Court. That is what Judge Webster ordered and his order stands until the Superior Court says otherwise.”

“As of this moment the Superior Court Judge hasn’t signed the order adding us to the case but I expect him to do so very soon,” Nix wrote on Aug. 23.

Cumming-based attorney Ken Jarrard, who represents the county commission, declined to comment on whether the county’s lawsuit could prevent the referendum from taking place. He noted Monday that no hearing date had been set.

Attorney Dana Braun represents the petitioners.

“The BOE is doing the correct thing by proceeding,” he said.

Board of Elections Supervisor Elenore “Doll” Gale estimated the referendum will cost between $20,000 and $30,000.

It’s and expenditure that could’ve been avoided, Watts said.

“McIntosh County is probably spending hundreds of thousands of dollars when residents simply are asking to be heard,” he said. “They have continued to refuse to hear our voices. And so we have to keep going until we can get our commissioners to work with us and not against us.”

CALL FOR SPECIAL ELECTION

Notice is hereby given that, in accordance with O.C.G.A. 21-2-540, a special election shall be held in McIntosh County for the purpose of submitting to the voters the following question for the approval or rejection; “Shall the Action of the Board of Commissioners of McIntosh County, Georgia, amending the McIntosh County Code of Ordinances Appendix C Sec. 219 HH Hog Hammock District of the McIntosh County Ordinance be repealed?” This special election will be held on October 1, 2024.
All persons who are not registered to vote and who desire to register to vote in the special election may register to vote through the close of business on Tuesday September 3, 2024.
Early/Advance voting will be held September 9, 2024 thru September 27, 2024, from 8:00 am to 5:00 pm. All polls will be open on October 1, 2024 from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m.
This the 29 day of July 2024.
Elenore L. Gale,
Election Supervisor
McIntosh County Board of Elections & Registration

Source: GeorgiaPublicNotice.com