Bibb County Attorney Planning to Send DOJ Response to Election Issue This Week

MACON, Georgia (41NBC/WMGT) — Bibb County attorney Virgil Adams says his goal is to send a letter at the end of the week responding to all of the Department of Justice’s questions regarding nonpartisan elections.

This comes after Adams met with seven of the eight members of the Bibb County Legislative Delegation Monday. State representative Allen Peake was not there.

Adams says in his response he’ll be honest about what information does, and does not exist.

“There’s some information we cannot provide and we’ll just simply say we don’t have it, but they will get some response to every inquiry they’ve made,” said Adams.

State Senator Cecil Staton said he was hoping the meeting would get some of the opponents of nonpartisan elections to see where he and other Republican lawmakers are coming from.

“I left the meeting disappointed because I don’t believe those of us who are in support of nonpartisan elections are going to be able to move our colleagues who oppose it,” said Staton.

Staton feels it’s unfair that the DOJ is holding up elections for Macon and Bibb County when other consolidated governments in Georgia already have nonpartisan elections.

State Representative James Beverly, who was also at the meeting, hopes that going forward, the Bibb delegation will accept whatever the DOJ is the right thing to do.

“The real take home for me was you’ve got to get people involved in this process you can’t do a unilateral decision for Bibb County because Bibb County is not a monolithic place. Everybody has different opinions, representatives are there for a real reason,” said Beverly.

Adams says he still has to speak with Representative Allen Peake before he sends in his response to the DOJ. The DOJ has 60 days to respond once it gets the information from Bibb County.