Even while early voting continues for next week's March 12 presidential preference primary, candidates for local office are qualifying at three different locations in Bulloch County this week for Georgia's May 21 general primary and nonpartisan general election.

Only candidates for nonpartisan offices, including four Board of Education seats, Magistrate Court judge and Probate Court judge, can qualify directly with county Election Supervisor Shontay Jones at the Board of Elections and Registration office in the Bulloch County Annex, 113 North Main St., Suite 201, Statesboro.

Candidates for partisan offices, including County Board of Commissioners chairman, three other county commissioner seats, sheriff, clerk of Superior Court, tax commissioner, solicitor-general of State Court, coroner and county surveyor, must fill out their paperwork and pay qualifying fees with local party officials at one of two different locations. Qualifying hours are 9 a.m. until 5 p.m., Monday–Thursday, March 4–7, and 9 a.m. until noon Friday, March 8.

Party locations

The Bulloch County Republican Party is hosting qualifying for local Republican Primary candidates at the county GOP headquarters, in Unit 3 at 24 Joe Kennedy Blvd. This is outside the boulevard's loop behind Ogeechee Technical College and near the Lewis Color printing plant. Qualifying hours are the same as for nonpartisan offices.

Meanwhile, the Bulloch County Democratic Committee is hosting qualifying for local Democratic Primary candidates in the conference room across the lobby from the county elections office, again 113 N. Main St. Officially, qualifying hours are 9 a.m.–5 p.m., Monday–Thursday, March 4–7, and 9 a.m.–noon Friday, March 8, but county Democratic Committee Treasurer Don Armel announced he would only be at the annex 10 a.m.–2 p.m. Monday, with candidates otherwise needing to call him at (912) 678-8399 for an appointment.

"I offered a space to both parties, and the Democratic Party took me up on it," said Jones. "The Republican Party stated that they would do it at their headquarters, which was fine, and they did it there as well in 2022."

First-day qualifiers

As of 5 p.m. Monday, five nonpartisan candidates had qualified with Jones, including three incumbents, one challenger and one new candidate for a seat whose incumbent did not qualify the first day.

Bulloch County Chief Magistrate Judge Karen Riggs Jones, who has not been elected before but is considered the incumbent  since being appointed last fall to fill the unexpired term of now-retired previous Chief Magistrate June Bradley Braswell, qualified as a candidate to seek a new four-year term. So did Probate Court Judge Lorna DeLoach.

But after the first day of qualifying, the one definite within-county race headed for any of the ballots was for the Board of Education seat in District 7.

Heather Mims, the incumbent District 7 BOE member, qualified for the seat, and so did a challenger, Lisha Nevil. Mims is now in her eighth year as a board member and in January was returned to the position of vice chair by vote of the district members, having served in that role for several years previously. Nevil, a retired teacher, taught for 30 years, including 26 years at Nevils Elementary School.

District 3 also has a new candidate for Board of Education, since attorney Jennifer Campbell Mock qualified Monday to run for the seat. But the District 3 incumbent, Stuart Tedders, Ph.D., now dean of the Jiann-Ping Hsu College of Public Health at Georgia Southern University, had not signed up to seek re-election as of 5 p.m. Monday, so it was not known yet whether there will be a race. He was first elected to the school board in 2016.

As nonpartisan contests, any races for the judgeships or school board seats will be decided either in the May 21 election or its possible June 18 runoff. However, candidates on the May 21 Democratic and Republican primary ballots will be vying for their parties' nominations and could face off with the other party's nominees in the Nov. 5 general election.

As of 5 p.m. Monday, the Republican primary qualifiers for in-county offices were four incumbents: Bulloch County State Court Solicitor-General Catherine Sumner Findley, Tax Commissioner Leslie D. Akins, Clerk of Superior Court Heather Banks McNeal and Sheriff Noel Brown. They had signed up and paid their fees with county Republican Party Treasurer Cassandra Mikell and county GOP Chair Lawton Sack at the party headquarters.

They said they expect a Republican candidate for Board of Commissioners chairman, a countywide-elected office, to sign up later this week. David Bennett, an Air Evac flight nurse and former Army Nurse Corps officer, previously announced his intentions during comments at a couple of public meetings.

Democrats' chair running

Meanwhile, the Bulloch County Democratic Committee had signed up two candidates, one an incumbent county commissioner and the other a potential challenger for a Republican in a different commission seat.

Commissioner Ray Mosley, the long-time incumbent Democrat in District 1, Seat A, qualified as a candidate for re-election. He is the only incumbent Democrat up for election to a Bulloch County office this year. District 1, the majority-minority commission district, has two members, with alternating terms so that one is elected every four years, while District 2, the majority-white district, has four members, two of whom are elected each four-year cycle.

Leonard "Len" Fatica, who chairs the Bulloch County Democratic Committee, qualified Monday after announcing his candidacy Friday for District 2, Seat C, currently held by Commissioner Jappy Stringer, a Republican.

"I am going to take a leave of absence (as Democratic Committee chair), probably after the primary," Fatica said. "I'm not anticipating anybody running on the Democratic ticket for county commissioner other than Ray and myself, but then after the primary, Jessica Orvis, who is the first vice chair, will step back in and be the chair until after the election."

Armel, the Democrats' treasurer, explained that even an incumbent officeholder could serve as local Democratic committee chair. This is different from state Republican rules. Sack, who ran for a Statesboro City Council seat last year, remained local Republican chair after his candidacy was unsuccessful but said he would have had to resign the party post if elected to council.

Neither Commissioner Curt Deal, the Seat 2-A incumbent, nor Chairman Roy Thompson, both Republicans, came in to qualify on the first day, but they and any challengers still had three-and-a-half days to do so.

So do candidates for the Board of Education seats in District 1, currently held by Glenn Womack, and District 8, currently held by Maurice Hill.

Candidate fees

Qualifying fees, based on salaries for the offices, are $600 for commissioners chairman, $225 for district commissioner, $2,425.67 for Superior Court clerk or tax commissioner, $2,799.43 for sheriff, $4,142.37 for solicitor-general, $630 for coroner and $100 for county surveyor.

For nonpartisan offices, the qualifying fees are $2,474.19 for Magistrate Court judge, $2,425.67 for Probate Court judge, and $72 for a Board of Education seat.