Update: Meeting to address sheriff candidate’s qualifications rescheduled

UPDATE: The Muscogee County elections board has rescheduled its meeting to address the qualifications of sheriff’s candidate Donna Tompkins.

The meeting formerly set for 10 a.m. instead will be held at 1 p.m. Thursday in the elections office in the City Services Center, 3111 Citizens Way.

The challenge to Tompkins’ qualifications comes from Columbus attorney J. Mark Shelnutt, who represents former Democratic Party candidate Pam Brown. The board disqualified her March 30 along with Democrat Robert Keith Smith.

Brown and Smith were disqualified for failing to meet a March 16 deadline to submit fingerprints for a criminal background check. They appealed the board’s decision to Superior Court, where it was upheld.

At issue now is whether Tompkins, the last remaining Democrat in the race and like Brown a former employee of the sheriff’s office, punctually filed an affidavit swearing she meets the standards to seek the position of sheriff.

Shelnutt maintains Tompkins’ “Declaration of Candidacy and Affidavit” should have been filed when she qualified with the Democratic Party, which was on March 7. An image of Tompkins’ affidavit posted to the Muscogee County elections office website shows the affidavit is dated March 15.

The relevant portion of the Georgia law requiring that affidavit states in part:

“Each person offering his or her candidacy for the office of sheriff shall at the time such person qualifies, swear or affirm before the officer before whom such person has qualified to seek the office of sheriff that he or she meets all of the qualifications required by this subsection … and that he or she has complied or will comply with the requirements of subparagraph (G) of paragraph (1) of this subsection no later than the close of business on the third business day following the close of the qualifying period.”

The latter reference to “subparagraph (G) of paragraph (1)” refers to candidates’ being fingerprinted for a criminal background check. They had three business days after qualifying ended March 11 to submit fingerprints.

Brown and Smith did not submit their fingerprints until March 17, a day late.

Shelnutt’s interpretation of the law is that in the affidavit, the candidate swears to meet the fingerprint deadline that’s three days after qualifying, but the affidavit swearing to do that still must be filed at the time the candidate qualifies with the party.

Tompkins said her affidavit would have been filed earlier, but no copy of it was in the campaign packet she got from the party when she qualified March 7. She was not told it was missing until March 15, when she went to the elections office to swear she was qualified and signed the document, she said.

In reference to Thursday’s meeting of the five-member Muscogee County Board of Elections & Registrations, Executive Director Nancy Boren issued a statement that read:

“I am in receipt of the materials supplied yesterday by the attorney for disqualified candidate Pam Brown, Mark Shelnutt. This office is reviewing and evaluating the items raised in that communication, and a statement will be released in response as soon as possible.”

This story was originally published April 26, 2016 at 4:56 PM with the headline "Update: Meeting to address sheriff candidate’s qualifications rescheduled."