Early voting for the June 17 primary elections for two Public Service Commission seats begins on May 27. The general election will be held on Nov. 4.
The Public Service Commission is a statewide elected regulatory commission that has exclusive power to decide what rates are fair and reasonable for services under its jurisdiction.
The PSC has five members that represent different areas of Georgia; however every member is elected by a statewide vote.
“Our goal is to ensure Georgians receive safe, reliable and reasonably priced telecommunications, electricity and natural gas,” a PSC spokesperson said.
This is the first PSC election since 2020.
An election for Districts 2 and 3 were canceled in 2022 after a judge found the statewide election system to be in violation of the Voting Rights Act. The case was still under appeal in 2024, so the election was again canceled.
District 2 Commissioner Tim Echols and District 3 Commissioner Fitz Johnson, incumbent Republicans, are both running for reelection.
Echols represents large swathes of east Georgia, including Athens, Augusta and Oglethorpe County. Johnson, who was appointed to the PSC by Gov. Brian Kemp in 2021, represents Metro Atlanta.
Lee Muns is running against Echols in the Republican primary and Alicia Johnson is running unopposed in the Democratic primary.
For District 3, Johnson is running unopposed in the Republican primary and Daniel Blackman, Peter Hubbard, Robert Jones and Keisha Sean Waites are running in the Democratic primary.
All early voting takes place at the Board of Elections office at 41 Fairground Road in Lexington.
Runoff elections for the primary will take place on July 15 if no candidate receives over 50% of the vote early voting for the runoff beginning July 7.