Nonpartisan Election Definition: Georgia Offices and Runoffs

In Georgia, a nonpartisan election is one in which candidates appear on the ballot without any political party label, and no one can run as a party nominee, a political body candidate, or an independent for the office. State law requires this format for most judgeships and authorizes it for a range of local offices, including school boards and many municipal seats. The practical payoff for voters is simple: you can vote in nonpartisan races even if you skip the party primaries entirely.

The rules sit in Title 21 of the Official Code of Georgia Annotated. O.C.G.A. 21-2-138 makes judicial races nonpartisan statewide, and O.C.G.A. 21-2-139 lets the General Assembly extend the same format to county judicial offices, local school boards, and consolidated-government seats.¹²

Which Georgia Offices Are Nonpartisan

The broadest mandate covers the courts. Under O.C.G.A. 21-2-138, four court levels must use nonpartisan elections: the Supreme Court of Georgia, the Court of Appeals, superior courts, and state courts. Candidates for those seats cannot carry a party label on the ballot, period.¹

County judicial offices such as probate courts fall under O.C.G.A. 21-2-139, which lets the General Assembly designate them nonpartisan through local legislation. The same statute authorizes nonpartisan elections for local boards of education.² School board candidates also have to live in the school district and election district they want to represent under O.C.G.A. 20-2-51.³

Municipal elections are a mixed picture. Many Georgia cities run nonpartisan races for mayor and city council, but not all. O.C.G.A. 21-2-139(c) leaves that choice to each municipality’s charter or local ordinance. If you want to know whether your city’s elections are partisan or nonpartisan, check the municipal charter, not state law.² Municipal nonpartisan elections also follow a calendar set by each city rather than the state primary schedule.

How You Vote in a Nonpartisan Race

This is where the definition matters most on election day. Nonpartisan judicial and school board races in Georgia run alongside the general primary in even-numbered years, without a separate nonpartisan primary beforehand. There is no party gate.

When you show up and ask for a Republican or Democratic primary ballot, the nonpartisan races appear at the bottom of that ballot, under a heading reading “Official Nonpartisan Election Ballot.”⁴ If you don’t want to participate in a party primary at all, you can request a standalone nonpartisan ballot containing only those races. Either way, you get to vote on the judges and the school board.

What the Ballot Looks Like

No party label, party emblem, or other party identifier appears next to any candidate’s name in a nonpartisan contest. Candidates are listed alphabetically by last name under the title of each office, with a write-in space provided for every nonpartisan seat.⁴ Nonpartisan municipal primary ballots follow the same general format, adapted to carry the municipality’s name instead of a party name.⁵

Majority Rule and Runoffs

Winning a nonpartisan race in Georgia takes a majority, not a plurality. If no candidate pulls more than 50 percent of the vote, the top two finishers advance to a runoff.⁴ In a crowded field with three or four candidates splitting support, the runoff is often the race that actually decides the seat. Watch your election calendar after primary day, because the runoff falls several weeks later and turnout usually drops.

What It Means If You Want to Run

Nonpartisan doesn’t mean no rules. Candidates have to meet the eligibility requirements for the specific office and go through a qualifying process, just without a party nomination.

Judicial offices carry the strictest qualifications. A superior court candidate must be at least 30 years old, a Georgia citizen for at least three years, a member in good standing of the State Bar of Georgia, and must have practiced law for at least seven years.⁶ Probate judges run on different terms under O.C.G.A. 15-9-2: U.S. citizen, at least 25, a county resident for at least two years before qualifying, a registered voter, a high school graduate or equivalent, and free of felony or moral turpitude convictions. Probate judges are not required to be licensed attorneys under current law.⁷

For non-judicial county and municipal seats, O.C.G.A. 45-2-1 sets the baseline: Georgia citizen, at least 21 (local ordinances can lower that to 18 for non-judicial offices), a county resident for at least 12 months before the election, and a registered voter. The same statute bars anyone convicted of a felony involving moral turpitude unless the State Board of Pardons and Paroles has restored their rights of citizenship, along with people who held public money and failed to account for it, and most holders of federal offices of profit or trust.⁸

To get on the ballot, candidates file a notice of candidacy and pay a qualifying fee set at 3 percent of the gross salary for the office in the prior calendar year.⁹ State-level judicial candidates file with the Secretary of State; local candidates file with their local election superintendent. A candidate who genuinely cannot pay can file a pauper’s affidavit along with a qualifying petition signed by registered voters equal to 1 percent of those eligible to vote in the last election for that office, or one-quarter of 1 percent for statewide seats. Lying on that affidavit is felony false swearing.¹⁰

Georgia’s campaign finance rules apply the same way they do in partisan races. Political organizations are free to endorse nonpartisan candidates, but campaign materials cannot misrepresent a nonpartisan race as partisan.

When the Nonpartisan Rule Is Violated

The State Election Board and the Secretary of State’s office enforce the nonpartisan rules. Under O.C.G.A. 21-2-33.1, the board can investigate complaints and impose civil fines of up to $5,000 per violation, issue cease-and-desist orders, publicly reprimand violators, and order restitution or payment of investigative costs. The Attorney General can also go to superior court for an injunction or civil penalties at the board’s request.¹¹ If a campaign flyer falsely implies a party affiliation in a judicial race, or a ballot is laid out in a way that signals partisan alignment, any voter can file a complaint.