After reviewing evidence in a special hearing Monday, attorney David Guldenschuh, representing the city of Rockmart, said city election superintendent Pam Herring would decide by Thursday, Nov. 1, if Payne is eligible to run for Ward 3, a district in which he does not live.
Payne lives in Ward 2, according to a districting map drawn by the Georgia General Assembly, Guldenschuh said.
Under state law, a candidate must live in a district which he intends to represent.
In Monday’s hearing, Payne said he had asked both city and county voter registration officials where he lived and they all said Ward 3.
Payne was told he was not eligible to run in that ward after he paid a $72 registration fee, he said.
He learned he was in the wrong ward, while he was campaigning.
Before 1993, Payne and his neighbors on North Marble Street lived in Ward 3, but reapportionment that year changed the map.
Payne and those on North Marble Street were moved into Ward 2 without their knowledge, Payne said.
However, according to voter registration information and precinct cards from the Secretary of State’s Office, Payne is still a Ward 3 voter.
Payne’s attorney, Hollie Manheimer, said if the city of Rockmart does not give Payne an apology for the mixup, reimbursements for the money he spent—not only on the registration fees, but campaign expenditures—and change the registration policies, she would take the case to the Polk Superior Court.
Payne has spent more than $400 campaigning.
“We’ll get right into Polk County Superior Court and pursue any and all legal remedies that I’ve been looking at as a possibility,” Manheimer said.
Manheimer said the possibility of seeking an injunction to halt Rockmart municipal elections until the matter is solved is not out of the question.
“At this point, I’m not sure (if an injunction will be sought) but again I’ll stand by my comments to do anything legally possible under the law,” she said.
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