Cities and towns across Georgia, including the four in Bulloch County, have candidate qualifying scheduled for week after next, Aug. 18-22 (but not necessarily all five days), for municipal elections potentially to be held Nov. 4 and with early voting for three weeks prior.

In Statesboro, the mayor’s office and two council seats – those in District 1 and District 4 – are due for votes, if there are any challenger candidates. Would-be candidates may pay fees and file the necessary paperwork during business hours from 8:30 a.m. Monday, Aug. 18, until 4:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 22, with City Clerk Leah Harden at Statesboro City Hall, 50 East Main St. The qualifying fees are prescribed by state law as 3% of the annual salary of an office. So Statesboro’s fees are $560 for candidates for mayor and $330 for candidates for City Council in District 1 and District 4.

Unlike the smaller towns in Bulloch County, Statesboro’s charter requires that council members be residents of their specific districts, not just of the city at-large.

Boro incumbents running

The three incumbents – Mayor Jonathan McCollar, District 1 Councilmember Tangie Reese Johnson and District 4 Councilman John Riggs – all said at the beginning of the year that they plan to seek re-election, and they said that’s still the case when asked again last week.

“Absolutely …  I’m committed to run one more time,” McCollar said in January, when he was beginning his eighth year in office, the final year of his second term. Nothing prevents him from seeking a third.

“With that being said, I think that in the years that we’ve been here, we’ve seen a lot of progress,” he continued. “We’ve seen a lot of growth, and we’ve really championed some initiatives that’ve really moved this city forward, everything from public transportation to neighborhood revitalization, a tremendous drop in poverty since we’ve been in office, as well as decreasing violent crime. … So we’re doing a lot of good stuff, and the work is still not done.”

John Riggs, the longest serving council member, represents District 4 and so is up for election this year. So is the most recently arrived member, District 1’s Tangie Johnson.

Back in 2021, Riggs was an off-again, on-again candidate for re-election, at first announcing that he wouldn’t run again, then changing his mind before qualifying time. But in 2025, he is starting as a candidate from the word “go,” or at least as soon as anyone asked.

Four years ago, “I was starting to get burnout at that time, and by announcing that I wasn’t going to run, it took a weight of my shoulders,” Riggs said in January. “I got to relax a little bit, and then a whole bunch of people came to me and said, ‘Please run again,’ and I got reinvigorated, and I feel just as excited now as I did my first year.”

Now in his 16th year in office, he is seeking a fifth term from District 4 voters.

Even though Johnson won a November 2024 special election, it was only for the remainder of former Councilman Phil Boyum’s term, after he resigned the previous summer. So if anyone else qualifies as a candidate, Johnson will have to run again to keep the District 1 seat for four years beyond Dec. 31, 2025.

Of course, she didn’t go to the trouble of qualifying and campaigning door-to-door in that special election, which she won over two other candidates without the need for a runoff, just to serve 13 months. So Johnson plans to campaign again, if necessary, to secure the 2026-2029 term, and said she wants to hear from people anyway.

“So far, so good,” Johnson said in January. “I’m anxious to get back out still, greet my constituents that we have here in Bulloch County and in Statesboro, just to get out and talk with everyone again just to make sure that their needs are being met and any concerns that they have. So, I’m excited and I’m looking forward to my actual term.”

3 Brooklet posts up

The city of Brooklet will hold qualifying for four days, not five. Would-be candidates may qualify at Brooklet City Hall, 104 Church St., from Monday, Aug. 18 to Thursday, Aug. 21, between 8:30 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. any of those days.

Brooklet Council Post 3, currently held by Rebecca Kelly, Post 4, currently held by James Harrison, and Post 5, currently held by Sheila Wentz, are up for election. Wentz, like Statesboro’s Johnson, won a partial term in a 2024 special election. As of this weekend E-Edition, the Herald had not asked Brooklet’s incumbents if they will be running. The qualifying fee for any of the Brooklet seats is $54.

Brooklet’s council seats are at-large, so candidates who meet other qualification requirements can live anywhere within Brooklet and run for any one of the seats.

Register & Portal

According to a notice published last week, Register’s mayoral office and its Council Seats 1 and 2 are up for election, with candidate qualifying to be held at Register Town Hall, 7 Main St., for three days only during the town clerk’s regular business hours, 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Tuesday, Aug. 19 through Thursday, Aug. 21. The fees are $25 for mayor and $15 for a council seat.

In Portal, three council seats are up for election in 2025, according to the election-year notice published back in January. The qualifying fee for a Portal Council seat is $45, and the slated qualifying period, as of the original notice, was 8:30 a.m. Monday, Aug. 18 until 4:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 22. Candidates file paperwork and pay the fee with City Clerk Mike Arrieta at Portal Town Hall, 27209 Highway 80 West.