• Optional@lemmy.world
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    6 days ago

    In Georgia, if judges announce they’ll quit at some point before the end of their term, they hand the governor the ability to choose their replacement for the next two years. Even if an election was about to be held for their seat, that race gets canceled and kicked years down the road. Even if an election for their seat has already happened, a judge could still resign after they’ve lost, giving the governor the power to make an appointment that would nullify the result.

    Evidently looking to trigger this rule, Yekel told Governor Brian Kemp in a Dec. 6 letter that he intended to resign effective Dec. 30, just one day before his term was set to end. Yekel, who lost to challenger Melissa Calhoun in a nonpartisan runoff for the seat last June, told Kemp that a low-turnout election shouldn’t decide the next judge, writing, “the office of State Court Judge of Effingham is too important to be decided by only 6% of the eligible voters.”

    But Kemp refused to accept Yekel’s resignation and appoint his successor, which would have retroactively canceled the election. Replying to Yekel in a Dec. 12 letter, Kemp said that a resignation is only effective once a governor agrees to it and that he could not accept the judge’s “attempted resignation,” writing that it would be unfair to override the results over a “legal technicality.”

    On Dec. 31, his last day in office, Yekel was found dead in his chambers from an apparent suicide. Calhoun took office on Jan. 1 as planned after Kemp issued no order on that day.

    While local authorities said they were investigating the circumstances of Yekel’s death,  his attempt to resign and request that the governor appoint his successor has sparked demands that state officials close the loophole that could have canceled his election.