Catoosa County Election Board keeps 4 candidates on Republican ballot

RINGGOLD, Ga. (WDEF) – Tensions were high inside of a Catoosa County courtroom on Tuesday.

Their elections board heard the county’s Republican Party plead their case to keep four candidates off of their ballot.

Several Catoosa County Republicans voiced their displeasure with a recent judge’s order, to put four candidates back on the Republican primary ballot for the upcoming May election.

However, an election board has upheld that ruling.

Catoosa County GOP members were left frustrated with the unanimous decision to keep former County Chairman Steven Henry, and current commissioners Vanita Hullander, Jeff Long, and Larry Black on the ballot.

One member of the county’s party, Christine Lawson, said, “If people believe that participation in their local parties, either the Republican Party or next year it could be the Democrat Party, if they believe that it doesn’t mean anything, then what’s the point?”

During the hearing, in which we were not allowed to bring in our cameras, they argued that the order to force the candidates back on the ballot violated the party’s First Amendment right to Freedom of Association.

The President of the Georgia Republican Assembly, Nathaniel Darnell, said, “By the same token, if you have a Christian denomination, you can say that the state can force a Christian denomination to have an atheist ordained as a pastor? The same basic principle applies here, any sort of private entity that you have, whether it’s a church, whether it’s a business, whether it’s a political party, they are all private entities. They have the right to decide who they want to associate with.”

Darnell also disapproved of the nature of the meeting, saying, “We had a lot of things go on here today to try to muzzle the message of the Catoosa GOP. They would not allow cameras, or microphones, or any kind of recording device in the Board of Elections meeting, which technically they are not supposed to do. This is not a judicial proceeding. They are supposed to allow that, in fact most counties do allow for broadcasts on YouTube, so what are they trying to hide here today to not let the general population see what’s going on?”

Meanwhile, lawyers for the candidates have been arguing the the county GOP have violated state law, and should have never kicked the four candidates off the ballot.

Bryan Tyson, an election lawyer representing Steven Henry, said, “I never have, this is I think a first for Georgia, we’ve had decision making like this from a small group of people, and so it is definitely unusual, but I think the law has spoken very clearly, both the judges and now the Board of Elections that these folks stay on the ballot.”

Henry, who was the target of criticism throughout Tuesday’s hearing, says that it may be difficult to bridge the divide that has among Catoosa County Republicans.

He said, “Ultimately, you need to be able to make decisions for the whole county, and that doesn’t always fit a few people, so you make the best decisions that you can, and make them based on facts and law, which is tasked to do, not on opinions and banter.

The Catoosa Republicans feel like the process was stacked against them.

One lawyer representing them, David Ohls, said, “If anyone can walk up and force a party to accept them, and walk up to court and get a friendly judge and force them to accept them, then we have no we have no political parties, we have no choice.”

Attorneys for the Catoosa County Republican Party say they’ve filed appeals in this case, and are awaiting a hearing on the judge’s ruling.