2021 Georgia Code
Title 21 - Elections
Chapter 2 - Elections and Primaries Generally
Article 5 - Presidential Preference Primary
§ 21-2-191. Parties Entitled to Hold Primaries; Dates; Decision to Elect Delegates to Presidential Nominating Convention in Primary; Qualifying Periods for Candidates for Delegate

As provided in this article, a presidential preference primary shall be held in 2012 and every four years thereafter for each political party or body which has cast for its candidates for President and Vice President in the last presidential election more than 20 percent of the total vote cast for President and Vice President in this state, so that the electors may express their preference for one person to be the candidate for nomination by such person's party or body for the office of President of the United States; provided, however, that no elector shall vote in the primary of more than one political party or body in the same presidential preference primary. Such primary shall be held in each year in which a presidential election is to be conducted on a date selected by the Secretary of State which shall not be later than the second Tuesday in June in such year. The Secretary of State shall select such date no later than December 1 of the year immediately preceding such primary. A state political party or body may by rule choose to elect any portion of its delegates to that party's or body's presidential nominating convention in the primary; and, if a state political party or body chooses to elect any portion of its delegates, such state political party or body shall establish the qualifying period for those candidates for delegate and delegate alternate positions which are to be elected in the primary and for any party officials to be elected in the primary and shall also establish the date on which state and county party executive committees shall certify to the Secretary of State or the superintendent, as the case may be, the names of any such candidates who are to be elected in the primary; provided, however, that such dates shall not be later than 60 days preceding the date on which the presidential preference primary is to be held.

(Code 1933, § 34-1002A, enacted by Ga. L. 1973, p. 221, § 1; Ga. L. 1974, p. 429, § 1; Ga. L. 1975, p. 1223, § 1; Ga. L. 1986, p. 220, § 1; Ga. L. 1992, p. 1, §§ 1, 1A; Ga. L. 1994, p. 1406, § 6; Ga. L. 1997, p. 590, § 18; Ga. L. 2007, p. 544, § 2/SB 194; Ga. L. 2011, p. 630, § 1/HB 454.)

- This Code section was amended by §§ 1 and 1A of Ga. L. 1992, p. 1. Section 6 of that Act, however, provided that § 1 of that Act would become effective upon the preclearance of this Act by the United States Attorney General pursuant to § 5 of the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended. If the Act did not receive such preclearance on or before January 27, 1992, § 1 of the Act would be void and would stand repealed in its entirety as of that time and date and § 1A, which amended this Code section to read as it did prior to the amendment by § 1 of the Act, would become effective on January 28, 1992. If § 1 did receive such preclearance, then § 1A of the Act would not become effective but would be void and stand repealed in its entirety upon § 1 becoming effective. The Act received preclearance by the United States Attorney General on January 27, 1992.

JUDICIAL DECISIONS

Preservation of party autonomy.

- The federal district court reads O.C.G.A. § 21-2-191 (only those parties which have cast greater than twenty percent of the votes in the last presidential election may participate in the presidential preference primary) and O.C.G.A. § 21-2-195 (parties are free to set out the rules by which delegates are bound) alongside O.C.G.A. § 21-2-193 (ballot decision-making) as a distinct attempt at preserving party autonomy in the nomination process. Duke v. Cleland, 783 F. Supp. 600 (N.D. Ga. 1992), aff'd, 954 F.2d 1526 (11th Cir. 1992).

Cited in Duke v. Cleland, 954 F.2d 1526 (11th Cir. 1992).