Richmond County resident launches effort to oust sheriff

AUGUSTA, Ga. (WRDW/WAGT) - A Richmond County resident has launched an effort to get Sheriff Richard Roundtree booted from office.

Eric Loggins has taken the initial steps to initiate a recall election, and the next step is in the hands of the Richmond County Board of Elections.

On Aug. 30, Loggins took out a recall application and had 15 days to gather 100 signatures of so-called sponsors. He turned in the signatures Thursday and now the board must schedule a meeting to determine whether the signatures are valid and sufficient to issue a recall petition.

If that’s the case, Loggins will need to gather signatures of 30% of registered voters in the county. Then if that petition passes muster, the board could schedule a recall election.

If the recall is successful, a special election must be called within 10 days of to fill the post.

HOW DOES A RECALL WORK?

Filing an application to recall an elected official is only the first of many steps.

“They have 15 days to get 100 signatures. Those signatures have to be people who were registered and eligible to vote for that elected official,” said Executive Director of The Richmond County Board of Elections, Travis Doss.

After the petitioner gets those signatures, the board of elections has five days to verify the application, and make sure the signers were all registered to vote during the election.

If they were, then a petition will be issued, which gives the petitioner 45 days to get signatures from 30% of all voters who were registered to vote for Roundtree.

“When you think about needing to get 30% of the registered voters, it can be a very long, drawn out, complicated procedure,” said Doss.

If the petition is verified by the board, the next step would be a recall election where voters would decide if they’d like the elected official recalled or not.

“If enough people vote yes, they want the person recalled, then the person is taken out of office,” said Doss.

Despite it all, Doss says there have only been three applications filed since he’s been in his position, none of which resulted in an elected official being removed from office.

Roundtree is up for re-election in 2024.

In submitting his initial application, Loggins wrote:

“Sheriff Richard Roundtree has failed to protect the innocent and uphold the law with the failure of his administration to appropriately charge individuals when crimes have been committed and witnesses are present.”

It’s unknown what sparked Loggins’ efforts, but he contacted News 12 in late August saying the Richmond County Sheriff’s Office hadn’t sufficiently investigated a driver involved in a crash in his driveway.

The board has scheduled a meeting for 9 a.m. Wednesday evaluate the sponsor application. The board will meet in the Beazley Room at the Augusta-Richmond County Municipal Building, 535 Telfair St.

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