Putnam Register of Deeds Election To Be Pushed Back To November

Putnam County’s next Register of Deeds will likely not be decided in the August Election.

Harold Burris was running for the position unopposed but passed away last week. County Attorney Jeff Jones said the timing of the situation will push that election to November.

“Because it is within 120 days of a regularly scheduled election, the county commission will not be required to fill that vacancy, but it will be filled at the next regular election which will be November in this case to give people opportunity to file qualifying petitions,” Jones said.

Jones said the county commission will have to officially be made aware of the vacancy during its July meeting. Jones said once the official notice is made, it will be up to the election commission to accept petitions.

“It’s a state law thing,” Jones said. “Whenever there is a vacancy in the office, the county legislative body or the county commission is the entity that makes the decision as to whether it gets filled or depending on the timing of things like this to not fill it awaiting a regularly schedule election.”

Jones said while county vacancies are not uncommon, the circumstances make this a unique situation. Jones said if there was another name on the ballot, the election would have continued as plan.

“Throughout the years, a number of county officials either resign or pass away,” Jones said. “So, it is not an unusual process in terms of there being vacancies in county offices. However, this one is a little different in that it is so close to a regularly scheduled election and you have a county official who passed away that was running unopposed in the August Election.”

Jones said Burris’ name will remain on the August ballot. Jones said it’s too late to remove a name after absentee ballots have already been distributed.