Andrew W. Bell v. Karli Swift, et al.

Petitioner challenged the December 3, 2024 runoff for the vacant DeKalb County District 3 seat by filing an emergency contest on December 9 under O.C.G.A. §§ 21-2-522 & 21-2-524. By statute the Superior Court Clerk was to issue “special process” notification to the Sheriff and the presiding judge could immediately convene a hearing—but no notice or hearing ever occurred. Instead, on January 17, 2025 the Superior Court dismissed the petition as untimely. Petitioner appealed to the Georgia Supreme Court on February 13, 2025, receiving two opinions that same day: one in S25I0586 (interlocutory appeal dismissed for lack of certification) and another in S25D0637, which he now seeks here. In S25D0637 the Court admitted it has “exclusive jurisdiction over ‘[a]ll cases of election contest’” (Ga. Const. Art. VI, § VI, 11(2)) but refused to exercise it because the trial court had never “resolved any elections-related matters,” transferring the case instead to the Court of Appeals. The following questions are presented:

1. Whether Georgia courts may dismiss election-contest petitions for “failure to perfect service” when O.C.G.A. § 21-2-524(f) places that duty on clerks and sheriffs—not on petitioners?

2. Whether the Georgia Supreme Court’s transfer of a discrete election-contest appeal—despite its “exclusive jurisdiction” under Ga. Const. Art. VI, § VI, Tf 11(2)—violates both state and federal constitutional guarantees of judicial access?

3. Whether denial of actual notice, refusal to re-enter judgments, and failure to apply equitable tolling deprive litigants of due process under the Fourteenth Amendment?

4. Whether repeated judicial and administrative breakdowns in Georgia— exemplified by delayed hearings, docket mismanagement, altered certification documents, and conflict with Eleventh Circuit en banc rules— require federal review under 28 U.S.C. § 1257(a)?