Georgia PSC candidate Daniel Blackman is found ineligible right after early voting starts
Columbus native, environmental justice and clean energy advocate Daniel Blackman has been ruled ineligible to run in this year’s Public Service Commission election, a judge and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has ruled.
Blackman is running to join the PSC, which regulates utility and power company decisions and long-term plans that include energy sources and cost to rate payers.
Administrative Law Judge Dominic Capraro ruled that Blackman, a former EPA Region 4 administrator and previous contender for a PSC seat, did not establish sufficient evidence proving he was a resident of District 3, for which he is running. The commission rules require the candidate to be a resident in the district they plan to represent for at least 12 months to be deemed eligible.
Capraro recommended that Blackman should be disqualified from the race because he only changed his voter registration to Fulton County (District 3) on April 3, the last day that candidates could qualify for the race. Blackman registered to vote in the November 2024 election from an address in Forsyth County, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Blackman told the Ledger-Enquirer that he has been a resident in Midtown Atlanta for “the required amount of time, a year before the election.”
Capraro gave his recommendations to Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Tuesday.
On Wednesday afternoon, Raffensperger agreed with Capraro, saying “(Blackman) has not met his burden to demonstrate he meets the residency requirement to be a candidate for Public Service Commission for District 3.”
Tuesday was also when early voting began for Georgians to winnow down one of the four District 3 candidates, which include Daniel Blackman, Keisha Waites, Peter Hubbard and Robert Jones. The primary candidate will face off against Fitz Johnson, a Republican incumbent.
“I’m still on the ballot, and we’re going to continue to work through the primary,” Blackman said on Wednesday morning. “We feel confident about where we are in the evidence we presented and we believe we’ve met the requirements for this process.”
Waites, a former three-term state representative who served District 60 in Clayton and Fulton counties from 2012 to 2017, is connected to the man who brought Blackman’s residency issues to the law judge, according to Blackman.
“This is coming directly from Keisha Waites,” he said. “She sold Rodney Stephens a home.”
Stephens is an Atlanta resident who filed the challenge, according to the AJC.
Blackman said prior to Raffensperger’s decision that he wasn’t concerned, despite just three weeks left to go until the primary election date on June 17.
“We believe we’ve met the requirements, I am very much adamant about allowing the process to play itself out,” he said.
Blackman didn’t immediately comment further after Raffensperger’s decision.
This is Blackman’s third run for the PSC. He lost to Republican Commissioner Lauren “Bubba” McDonald in 2014 by around 300,000 votes. Six years later he lost to McDonald again by about 150,000 votes, but neither got 50% of the vote and they went to a runoff. McDonald narrowly won that race by about 34,000 votes.
Prior to Wednesday’s decision, Blackman received an endorsement from the Georgia Conservation Voters. The nonprofit’s endorsement remained in place earlier Wednesday despite the legal challenge. GCV Media Strategist Paul Glaze provided a statement about their endorsement to the Ledger-Enquirer:
“Georgia Conservation Voters (GCV) stands firmly with our endorsed candidate, Daniel Blackman, in the race for Georgia’s Public Service Commission District 3,” Glaze said. “While the recent administrative law judge’s ruling on Daniel’s residency challenge has raised questions, this decision is not final. Daniel is actively appealing the ruling, and we are confident that voters — not technicalities — should decide this election.
“We strongly encourage all voters to take advantage of early voting and to make their voices heard by Election Day, June 17th. GCV has no plans to endorse any other candidate in the District 3 Democratic primary.”
Mike Hassinger, a public information officer for Raffensperger’s office,said in an email, “notices will be placed at polling places advising voters of the disqualification of the candidate.”
Hassinger also said that it is impossible to know how many people already voted for him until the end of the primary day and “no Georgia voter is allowed to vote twice in the same contest, so nobody will be voting again, regardless of who they voted for.”
This story was originally published May 28, 2025 at 2:20 PM.
