The Oglethorpe County Board of Commissioners has approved qualifying fees for the 2024 election cycle.
A qualifying fee is the amount of money that must be paid by candidates to run for an elected office. Qualifying fees for Oglethorpe County’s 2024 elections are:
- Commission chair: $1,927.66
- Commissioner: $126 (down from $132 in 2022)
- Sheriff: $1,927.66
- Magistrate judge: $1,693.55
- Probate judge: $1,660.34
- Clerk of court: $1,660.34
- Tax commissioner: $1,660.34
- Coroner: $72
- Board of education (member): $43.20 (increase from $34 in 2022)
Qualifying for county offices will be held from 9 a.m. Monday, March 4 to noon on Friday, March 8 at the board of elections office on Fairground Road.
Jay Paul, chairman of Board of Commissioners, suggested that qualifying fees were created to narrow the list of genuine candidates for a government position.
“It may help weed out if a person is serious or not about one of these positions,” he said. “For example, the sheriff’s qualifying fee is $1,927.66. Well, perhaps if you didn't have that, you may have 500 people run for sheriff. (The fees) may be a way to gauge a person’s sincere interest in a position.”
According to Georgia Code, Section 21-2-13(a)(1) — which applies to every county in Georgia — qualifying fees “shall be 3 percent of the total gross salary of the office paid in the preceding calendar year.”
Based on that stipulation, many of the qualifying fees in nearby counties differ greatly from Oglethorpe County’s qualifying fees.
For example, the Athens-Clarke County qualifying fee for sheriff is $3,391.30, and all but one qualifying fee in that county is at least $700 more than the same position in Oglethorpe County.
Madison County follows a similar pattern.
All of Madison County’s qualifying fees are higher than Oglethorpe County, with the exception of Madison County’s District 3, 4 and 5 commissioner fee ($104.23).
Wilkes County’s qualifying fees tend to be lower than Oglethorpe County.
The only Wilkes County fees higher than Oglethorpe County’s fees are the coroner position ($108) and the board of education members ($72).
Several area counties haven’t approved their qualifying fees for the 2024 election cycle. Oconee, Elbert and Greene counties have until Feb. 1 to vote on fees for next year’s elections.