The Fannin County Board of Elections voted, in a meeting November 4, not to conduct the City of Blue Ridge’s special election to replace Ken Gaddis.
Chairman Sonia Smith said, “The main concern, I think is, beginning in March of next year the Board of Elections has an enormous amount of elections coming up with our own county and, of course, nationally.
“And, couple that with the fact we have all brand new machines coming in and re-training of poll workers, additional poll workers we have to now hire because of the new machines and the new procedure.”
There is also some concern about getting the county’s voting precincts up to speed with the new machines and requirements as well, Smith said. “There are so many ifs we are facing that we just did not feel we could handle this election with all that we had facing us at this time.”
City officials did not respond to inquiries seeking comments before press time this week.