Municipal election in Camilla, Georgia, was disrupted, not the presidential vote

Context

On November 4, just one day before the U.S. presidential election, the Election Superintendent and Assistant Election Superintendent of Camilla, Georgia, announced their resignation. 

In a statement shared on the City of Camilla's official Facebook page, the election officials cited "mental duress, stress, and coercion" related to their roles as the reason for their departure.

The sudden resignation of the election officials caused significant confusion and concern among the public regarding the status of the elections. This situation was highlighted in a TikTok video (archived here) titled "Camilla, Georgia Canceled Voting on Election Day," which we also found through Logically Accelerate, a tool for discovering fact-check-worthy content on social media. 

In the video, the user voiced frustration over what she characterized as political turmoil within the town. 

She referenced Mayor Kelvin Owens and alluded to political "shenanigans" that she believed were undermining the electoral process. 

The user further claimed that a Facebook post from the election officials announced the cancellation of the elections, implying that all voting in Camilla had effectively been halted.

In fact

While the resignations caused some disruption, they only affected the special municipal election intended to fill two vacant City Council seats. 

"The City of Camilla only conducts municipal elections; therefore, the presidential election was not impacted for Mitchell County voters," Cheryl Ford, the City Clerk of Camilla, told Logically Facts.

"Voters residing within the corporate limits of Camilla vote in the municipal election for council members and mayor and vote with the Mitchell County Board of Elections for any and all other races," Ford emphasized.

On November 5, the presidential, statewide, and federal elections, overseen separately by Mitchell County, proceeded as scheduled.

According to an AP article, alternative arrangements were made to ensure the special municipal election continued later that day.

Confusion seemed to stem from the timing and wording of the resignation announcement, which some interpreted as an overall cancellation of all voting activities within the city.

"The way it's written… leaves too much room for confusion," one user remarked in response to the City of Camilla's Facebook post regarding the election officials' resignations.

This is not the first instance of misinformation about election integrity in Georgia. During the 2020 election, Logically Facts reported on a claim that up to 15,000 deceased individuals had cast votes. However, investigations proved this claim to be false. The Georgia Secretary of State's office found only four cases where ballots were submitted in the names of deceased individuals, all cast by family members on behalf of their deceased relatives.

The verdict

The presidential election was not affected in Camilla, Georgia. Although the resignations of the Election Superintendent and Assistant Superintendent led to temporary confusion about the special municipal election, the presidential and other scheduled elections were unaffected and proceeded as planned. Therefore, we have marked this claim as misleading.