Atlanta › Code of Ordinances — Part II (General Ordinances)

Chapter 66 — Elections

Code as publishedas of 2026-05-27

Our copychecked by hand 2026-07-09

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Verify with City of Atlanta ↗11 sections · full chapter

ARTICLE I. IN GENERAL

§ 66-1

Superintendent.

Sec. 66-1. Superintendent.

The municipal clerk is designated election superintendent in the city with all rights, powers and duties as provided by the Georgia Election Code, as now or hereafter amended (O.C.G.A. § 21-2-1 et seq.) and shall conduct all elections of the city in accordance with the Georgia Election Code, as now or hereafter amended. (Code 1977, §§ 1-2002, 1-3001; Ord. No. 2009-67(09-O-1888), § 1, 11-11-09)

§ 66-2

Precinct boundary lines and polling places.

Sec. 66-2. Precinct boundary lines and polling places.

The precincts polling places and maps showing precinct boundary lines within the City of Atlanta shall be designated, changed or created in accordance with O.C.G.A. §§ 21-2-260 to 21-2-270.

The precincts and polling places within the City of Atlanta in both Fulton and DeKalb Counties are specifically described in a document entitled "City of Atlanta Precincts and Polling Places, (as of November 20, 2017)." The city wide council districts boundary lines with corresponding precinct designations and boundary lines are specifically shown on a map titled "City of Atlanta Council Districts and Voting Precincts Map," dated December 04, 2017. Both are on file in the office of the municipal clerk, and are incorporated in this chapter and adopted by reference as the official "City of Atlanta Council Districts and Voting Precincts Map." (Code 1977, § 1-3002; Ord. No. 2001-81, § 1, 11-13-01; Ord. No. 2009-67(09-O-1888), § 1, 11-11-09; Ord. No. 2013-39(13-O-1194), § 1, 8-28-13; Ord. No. 2017-84(17-O-1774), § 1, 12-13-17)

§ 66-3

Qualification period and qualification fees for general and special elections.

Sec. 66-3. Qualification period and qualification fees for general and special elections.

(a)The qualification period for a city general or special election shall be as provided in O.C.G.A. § 21-2-132. General election and special election shall be as defined by the Georgia Election Code (O.C.G.A. § 21-2-1 et seq.).

(b)Qualification fees shall be fixed as provided in O.C.G.A. § 21-2-131.

(c)Specific dates for qualification and the amount of qualification fees, shall be adopted by ordinance or resolution and shall be published in the official organs of Fulton and DeKalb Counties and in a newspaper of general circulation in the municipal corporation, as provided in O.C.G.A. § 21-2-131. (Code 1977, § 1-3007; Ord. No. 2009-67(09-O-1888), § 1, 11-11-09)

§ 66-4

Nomination by petition.

Sec. 66-4. Nomination by petition.

In addition to O.C.G.A. § 21-2-132, a candidate for municipal office may qualify by filing a nomination petition as provided by O.C.G.A. § 21-2-170. (Code 1977, § 1-3004; Ord. No. 2009-67(09-O-1888), § 1, 11-11-09)

§ 66-5

Compensation of workers.

Sec. 66-5. Compensation of workers.

The election commissioner or manager in chief, commissioners or associate managers and clerks shall be compensated as provided by O.C.G.A. § 21-2-71 and any other applicable state law. (Code 1977, § 1-3003; Ord. No. 2009-67(09-O-1888), § 1, 11-11-09)

§ 66-6

Challenging right of elector to vote.

Sec. 66-6. Challenging right of elector to vote.

Challenges to the right of a person to vote in an election are covered by O.C.G.A. § 21-2-230. (Code 1977, § 1-3005; Ord. No. 2009-67(09-O-1888), § 1, 11-11-09)

§ 66-7

Contesting election results.

Sec. 66-7. Contesting election results.

Procedures for hearings on petitions to contest election results and appeals relating thereto are governed by O.C.G.A. §§ 21-2-520 to 21-2-529 and any other applicable state law. (Code 1977, § 1-3006; Ord. No. 2009-67(09-O-1888), § 1, 11-11-09)

Secs. 66-8—66-35. Reserved.

ARTICLE II. INITIATIVE, REFERENDUM AND RECALL

§ 66-36

Initiative.

Sec. 66-36. Initiative.

Whenever 15 percent of the registered voters, as disclosed by the registration lists of the last preceding general municipal election, shall request in a petition filed in the office of the municipal clerk the submission of an ordinance or resolution, the substance of which is incorporated in the petition, for adoption by vote of the people, an election shall be called therefor within 30 days after it has been read by the council, and the election shall be held within 90 days after the date of the call. If at the election the resolution or ordinance receives a majority of the votes cast, it shall become operative and cannot be thereafter repealed except by an election similarly called. However, if the council adopts the resolution or ordinance for which a petition is filed, no election shall be called. (Code 1977, § 1-3021)

§ 66-37

Referendum.

Sec. 66-37. Referendum.

(a)Whenever 15 percent of the registered voters, as disclosed by registration lists of the last preceding general municipal election, shall request, in a petition filed with the municipal clerk, amendments to the Charter or amendments to or repeals of ordinances or resolutions which may have already been adopted by the council, the amendments or repeals shall thereafter be submitted to the qualified voters of the city. Such petition shall specifically set forth the exact language of the proposed amendment or repeal. The council shall determine the validity of such petition within 50 days of its filing. If such petition is determined valid, within one week the council shall issue the call for a special election for the purpose of submitting such amendment or repeal to the registered electors of the city for their approval or rejection. The council shall set the date of the special election as provided in O.C.G.A. § 21-3-53. The council shall cause a notice of the date of the election to be published in a newspaper of general circulation once a week for two weeks immediately preceding such date. The voting on questions submitted to the people at the special election provided for in this section in what is known as the initiative and referendum shall be held in the same manner as the general election, under the same methods, and the result thereof shall be canvassed in the same manner and declared and reported to the council for confirmation. If the majority of the votes are cast against the ordinance or resolution, it shall be thereby repealed and revoked and shall not thereafter be of any effect nor shall it thereafter be adopted by the council until resubmitted to and adopted by the qualified voters of the city in the same manner as originally submitted. If a majority of the votes are cast in the affirmative, the ordinance or resolution shall stand and be effective in the same manner as other ordinances or resolutions of the city. If the council determines that the petition is not valid, it shall publish in detail, in a newspaper of general circulation in the week immediately following the date on which the petition is declared to be not valid, the reasons why such petition is not valid.

(b)The sponsor of a petition authorized by this section shall obtain copies of all official petitions from the municipal clerk. The municipal clerk shall approve all petitions as to form. The municipal clerk shall provide a place on each form for the person collecting signatures to provide such person's name, street address, city, county, state, ZIP code and telephone number and to swear that such person is a resident of the city and that the signatures were collected inside the boundaries of the city. The collection of signatures for the petition shall begin on the day the municipal clerk provides official copies to the sponsor of the petition. A petition authorized by this section shall not be accepted by the council for verification if more than 60 days have elapsed since the date the sponsor of the petition first obtained copies of the petition from the municipal clerk.

(c)The council shall be authorized to submit to the qualified voters of the city at any election any ordinance or resolution which it may deem proper. If a majority of voters shall vote for this ordinance or resolution, it shall be adopted. If a majority of the votes so cast are against the resolution or ordinance, it shall be defeated and shall not thereafter be adopted by the council until resubmitted to and adopted by the qualified voters of the city. If it receives a majority vote of the people and becomes effective, it can only be repealed by a majority vote of the qualified voters at a special election. (Code 1977, § 1-3022)

§ 66-38

Recall elections.

Sec. 66-38. Recall elections.

Any person holding an elective office of the city shall be subject to removal from office at a recall election in the manner provided by the Recall Act of 1989, O.C.G.A. § 21-4-1 et seq. (Code 1977, § 1-3011)

§ 66-39

Petition review process.

Sec. 66-39. Petition review process.

(a)This section shall apply to the review of petitions submitted pursuant to sections 66-36 and 66-37 of this article.

(b)Intake, delivery, receipt by clerk.

(1)The petition sponsors shall give the municipal clerk at least 24 hours-notice before submitting the petition to provide for sufficient time for the municipal clerk to take action to prepare for receipt in accordance with this section.

(2)The petition shall be delivered to the municipal clerk in boxes and each box must be numbered and include an attestation from the petition sponsor(s) of the number of pages included in that box.

(3)Upon acceptance of the boxes, the municipal clerk shall verify the number of boxes and provide the petition sponsor(s) with an acknowledgement of receipt. The municipal clerk shall seal the boxes in view of the petition sponsor(s) present, and take the boxes to a secure vault in the municipal clerk's office, where they will be kept secure prior to scanning in accordance with this section.

(c)Scanning and processing.

(1)Once received, the boxes will be individually opened, and their contents scanned to create an electronic image of every page. The municipal clerk will create individual designations for each page in each box, such that every page that is turned in will have a unique designation.

(2)The municipal clerk will provide the petition sponsors with a copy of those electronic images within three business days after the petition is submitted. As soon as practicable thereafter, the municipal clerk shall create and shall publish online a searchable database of all the names on the petition. Once scanned, the originals will be returned to the secure vault.

(d)Review and verification.

(1)Total number of signature lines. Initially, the municipal clerk will count the number of total signature lines submitted to determine whether the petition contains at least the minimum number of signatures required for validation.

(2)Signature line verification. If the petition contains at least the minimum number of signatures required for validation, each signature line will be reviewed to determine whether the name and other information present corresponds to a qualified Atlanta voter; and, if so, whether the signature is genuine. Voter informa-tion and signatures will be validated using an official state voter registration database.

a.The first stage of the verification shall be a determination of whether the information provided corresponds to that of an identifiable qualified elector, as defined in the Georgia Home rule Act provisions applicable to the petition and referendum process, currently at O.C.G.A. § 36-35-3, or as it shall be amended. The name and other information present need not be an exact match so long as the information provided shall be sufficient to confirm the identity of the voter. Discrepancies that shall not invalidate a signature line, so long as the voter can otherwise be identified from the available information include but shall not be limited to where:

1.A middle initial or middle name is present on the entry but not in the voter registration database, or present in the voter registration database but not on the entry;

2.A name suffix is present on the entry but not in the voter registration database, or present in the voter registration database but not on the entry;

3.The address on the entry is missing an apartment letter or number or a street direction, or the address entry contains an apartment letter or number or a street direction that is missing in the voter registration database record; or

4.The printed name is illegible, but the signature can be read.

b.During the second stage of the review, signatures shall be reviewed to eliminate obvious fraud, and every reasonable effort will be made to validate a signature. During signature review:

1.OCR (Optical Character Recognition) shall not be utilized for signature comparison.

2.Exact matches shall not be required. Signatures sharing similar characteristics shall be sufficient to determine that a signature is valid.

3.If a person reviewing signature lines finds that a signature differs significantly and obviously from the voter's record, the signature will be submitted to a second person reviewing signature lines, and the signature will be rejected only if the second reviewer also concludes that the signature differs in significant and obvious ways from the voter file. If the second reviewer determines the signatures are sufficiently similar, it will be accepted.

c.Explanations for discrepancies in signatures shall include but shall not be limited to:

1.Evidence of trembling or shaking in a signature could be health-related or the result of aging;

2.Where the voter's signature style may have changed over time;

3.Where the signature may have been written in haste; or

4.Where the surface of the location where the signature was made may have been hard, soft, uneven, or unstable.

(e)Curing rejected signatures. The initial review shall be completed and all curative notices shall be mailed by the 40th day of the review process, in order to give individuals time to cure rejected signatures lines.

(1)If a signature is rejected as not genuine, within three business days the municipal clerk will mail a notice and curative attestation to the individual at the address listed on the petition. If a telephone number is listed, the individual will also be called.

(2)The individual may cure the signature rejection by demonstrating, by affidavit or by personal appearance, that they are the individual listed and who signed the petition.

(3)The municipal clerk will accept such information by mail, electronically, or in person.

(4)Individuals shall have up to the 40th day of the review process, or seven days from the mailing of the curative notice, whichever is longer, to submit evidence of their identity and eligibility in accordance with this section, in order to cure a rejected signature line.

(f)Transparency. Any petitions submitted to the municipal clerk in accordance with this section are public records, and electronic copies thereof shall be subject to redaction and production in accordance with the Georgia Open Records Act. At the end of each week during the review and verification process, the municipal clerk shall publish a line-by-line update on the results each petition page review, including the reasons for disqualification of any line. The municipal clerk will also publish a list of all Atlanta voters who are qualified electors under the applicable provisions of the Georgia Home Rule Act, so as to provide an opportunity for anyone who discovers that their signature has not been counted to contest their status through the presentation of evidence that they were in fact Atlanta electors at the relevant times and that they signed the petition during its circulation period. (Ord. No. 2024-08(24-O-1007), § 1, 2-14-24)

Chapters 67—69 RESERVED Chapter 70 EMERGENCY SERVICES* Article I. In General Sec. 70-1.

9-1-1 charge on prepaid wireless transactions.

Sec. 70-2.

Collection of 9-1-1 charge on prepaid wireless transactions.

Sec. 70-3.

Administrative provisions.

Sec. 70-4.

Depositing of funds; use of funds.

Sec. 70-5.

Effective date.

Secs. 70-6—70-25. Reserved.

Sec. 70-26. Sec. 70-27. Sec. 70-28. Sec. 70-29. Sec. 70-30. Sec. 70-31. Sec. 70-32. Sec. 70-33. Sec. 70-34. Sec. 70-35. Sec. 70-36.

Article II. Alarm Systems Purpose/applicability. Definitions. Alarm permits. Government immunity. Duties of an alarm user. Responsibilities of an alarm company. Prohibited acts. Enforcement of provisions. Alarm user awareness class. Administrative appeal/procedures. Confidentiality.