Qualifying begins Monday for city elections

Qualifying begins Monday for municipal elections in Hall County and the rest of the state.

Locally, 21positions will be on the Nov. 7 ballots, including three city council and three city school board seats in Gainesville, with qualifying taking place Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday.

As for the other cities and towns in the county:

*Oakwood: three council posts; qualifying Monday-Wednesday

*Flowery Branch: two council seats; qualifying Monday-Wednesday

*Lula: three council posts; qualifying Monday-Wednesday

*Gillsville: three seats; qualifying Monday-Wednesday

*Buford: one city commission post and two city school board seats; qualifying Monday-Wednesday

*Braselton: two city council seats; qualifying Wednesday-Friday

*Clermont: two council seats; qualifying Monday-Wednesday

State law gives communities latitude in how many and what days qualifying is held as long as it is finished by the end of the business day Friday.

About the Author

Ken Stanford is Online News Editor for GLORY 97.5, a position he has held since August 2022.

Ken was born in Moultrie, Georgia, and says he knew from the time he was 5 or 6 he wanted to be a “radio announcer.” That dream was realized when he was hired by Moultrie radio station WMTM in 1960 at the age of 15 as a weekend disc jockey. A 1963 graduate of Moultrie (now Colquitt County) High School, he has spent his whole career in Georgia working for stations in Atlanta, Marietta, and Gainesville – most recently as News Director for 40 years at WDUN in Gainesville. He is a veteran of the U.S. Air Force Reserves.

Ken retired in 2011 but came out of retirement last year to help GLORY, on a part-time basis, beef-up its online news presence.

He is the recipient of many Associated Press awards and is a former judge of state and national Associated Press broadcast news contests. In 2005, he was presented with the Georgia Associated Press Broadcasters Association’s President’s Award for Excellence in Journalism and in 2019 was inducted into the Georgia Radio Hall of Fame.

He lives in Gainesville with his wife of 52 years, the former Sandra McKnight of Clio, Alabama, and they have one child, a daughter, Lisa, who lives in Cumming with her family.