Blackshear Police Department Major Robby Boatright will run as a write in candidate after a judge ruled he cannot qualify as an indep endent candidate for sheriff.
Boatright confirmed Friday he will run as a write in candidate in the Nov. 5 general election against Incumbent Republican Sheriff Ramsey Bennett.
“I’m most definitely still running,” he said. “I have too much invested not to.”
Boatright’s pending write-in candidacy comes after a court ruling Friday ended his bid to run as an independent candidate.
Waycross Judicial Circuit Superior Court Judge Kelly Brooks dismissed Boatright’s lawsuit challenging the decision by Board of Elections Supervisor Leah Ritch and the Pierce County Board of Elections to disqualify his nomination petitions.
Judge Brooks handed down the decision Friday morning.
The five page order upheld Ritch and the Board of Elections’ determination Boatright’s petition had “material errors and defects.” Brooks specifically cited Georgia Law § 20-2170(d)(4) which reads “No notary public may sign the petition as an elector or serve as a circulator of any petition which he or she notarized. Any and all sheets of a petition that have the circulator’s affidavit notarized by a notary public who also served as a circulator of one or more sheets of the petition or who signed one of the sheets of the petition as an elector shall be disqualified and rejected.”
Boatright
Brooks rejected Boatright’s claim the notary issue did not constitute a material error and defect.
The court found Tracy Thornton, Beth Lee, Jennifer Martin and Laura Lee all signed the petition as electors in support of Boatright’s candidacy. Thornton and B. Lee also notarized the petitions and that Thornton was also a circulator of the petitions.
A total of 84 petitions were submitted containing about 1,036. Boatright said he believes at least 887 of the signatures are those of valid registered voters. Boatright needed the signatures of five percent (or 636) of the registered voters of Pierce County to qualify as an independent candidate.
“Simply, all sheets of a petition notarized by a notary public who signed one of the sheets as an elector shall be disqualified and rejected. The disqualification and rejection applies to any and all sheets of a nomination Petition that the offending notary signed, not only the sheet the notary signed as an elector. Based upon the facts shown by the nomination Petition, Respondents (Ritch and the Board of Elections) were required to disqualify and reject the nomination Petition. Petitioner has zero (0) qualified signatures on his nomination Petition.”
Judge Brooks also ruled on two other issues regarding Ritch sending Boatright an initial copy and then an amended copy denying the petition and Ritch emailing Boatright instead of mailing the notice of denial.
Ritch initially notified Boatright of his disqualification but sent an amended copy adding additional grounds.
Brooks ruled the argument “without merit” saying the amended notice did not delay or prejudice Boatright from seeking his legal rights.
On the email issue, the judge said the argument was “not procedurally appropriate for consideration by the court” but Brooks said it was the “most considerate form of communication” to allow Boatright to seek “legal redress sooner, rather than later.”
Now that the case is resolved, Ritch said she knows the followed the law.
“We are glad that this is behind us and we are thankful for Judge Brooks granting motion to dismiss due to the law being “black and white”,” Ritch said. “The most important thing that I would like for the public to understand, is that I and the Board of Elections, are bound to Georgia Election Code. There are election laws that are just as important as other laws of the land. We do not make decisions without referring to code, case law and legal counsel. I followed the law in denying the independent petition of the candidate.”
Speaking on behalf of the board of elections, member Angela Manders said she is pleased the ruling validated the board’s decision.
“(The board) believed all along this would be the outcome because we followed the law,” she said. “It is unfortunate a suit was filed because we believed the county and the board of elections time, effort and resources could be used on something else. We promise citizens they can rest assured that Leah Ritch and the Board of Elections will follow the law to maintain integrity in our elections.”
The ruling means Boatright’s name will not appear on the November 5 general election ballot. Boatright will move forward with a write-in candidacy. He will be required to file a notice of his candidacy as a write-in candidate by Tuesday, September 3. Voters have the option of writing in Boatright on their ballots.
