Proposed Constitutional Amendment 2

Proposed Amendment

Provides for the nonpartisan election of all probate court judges.

House Resolution 251
Ga. L. 2026, p. 1110

Shall the Constitution of Georgia be amended so as to require that all probate court judges be elected in nonpartisan elections?

Choices: Yes / No

Recommendation – Vote No

Overview

Probate court judges are elected by voters in each county and handle matters such as wills and estates, marriage licenses, guardianships, weapons carry licenses, and certain other county-level judicial matters. Some also process passport applications. This proposed amendment would require all Georgia probate court judges to be elected in nonpartisan elections, meaning candidates would appear on the ballot without a political party designation. This would seemingly emphasize a probate judge’s qualifications and judicial responsibilities rather than political party affiliation, while creating a consistent election system for probate judges across Georgia.

How It Works Now

Georgia’s 1983 Constitution established nonpartisan elections for appellate, Superior Court, and State Court judges, while allowing probate judge elections to remain partisan. Supreme Court justices, Court of Appeals judges, Superior Court judges, State Court judges, and elected magistrates run in nonpartisan elections. Juvenile and municipal judges are generally appointed. As of October 2026:

Court or office	Selection method
Supreme Court, Court of Appeals, Superior Court	Nonpartisan elections
State Court	Nonpartisan elections
Chief magistrate	Nonpartisan elections
Other magistrates	Generally appointed by the chief magistrate with Superior Court judges’ consent; where elected, elections are nonpartisan
Juvenile Court	Generally appointed by Superior Court judges, unless local law provides for elections
Municipal Court	Usually appointed by the mayor or city council; some are elected under local provisions
State-wide Business Court	Appointed by the governor, with legislative committee approval
Georgia Tax Court	Appointed by the governor, with legislative committee approval

These rules are documented in Georgia’s court guides, magistrate statute, and appointment provisions. The magistrate rule changed recently: HB 426 made magistrate elections nonpartisan effective July 1, 2025, overriding local provisions for partisan elections.

Probate elections currently vary by county. 53 of Georgia’s 159 counties elect probate judges with party labels. Ballot Question No. 2 on the November 3, 2026 ballot would require all probate judge elections to be nonpartisan statewide.

Issues

This proposed amendment, Georgia House Resolution 251 (HR 251), is part of a larger effort to remove party labels from Georgia elections. HR 251 received final General Assembly approval on March 31, 2026, four days after final legislative approval of HB 369 on March 27. Georgia HB 369 is a law that will make many races nonpartisan beginning January 1, 2028, in five metro counties: Clayton, Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, and Gwinnett. Here’s a breakdown:

Offices affected	Election changes
County commissioners or other governing-authority members, subject to an exception below	Nonpartisan election on the general-primary date in even-numbered years
Tax commissioners, Superior Court clerks, and solicitors-general	Same
State Court clerks and county surveyors, where elected	Same
District attorneys whose judicial circuit consists solely of an affected county	Nonpartisan election in November

HB 369 excludes sheriffs and county governing-authority offices established or authorized by a local constitutional amendment. HB 369 governs the offices in the table above; Ballot Question No. 2 concerns probate judges statewide.

Under HB 369, these races, with the exception of the district attorney, would be held alongside the May primary, when fewer people vote. Beginning in 2012, Georgia held nonpartisan judicial elections alongside the general primary rather than the November general election. The general primary is now held in May. For example, about 1.3 million voters participated in Georgia’s May 21, 2024 primary, compared with about 5.3 million ballots cast in the November 5, 2024 general election—roughly four times as many. Primaries draw far fewer voters, so probate judges would be chosen by a much smaller share of Georgians.

Values matter in how judges read the law. In an ideal world, a judge’s party wouldn’t matter. A judge’s job is to be impartial in their interpretation of the law as it applies to the facts of a case. However, we don’t live in that world, as evidenced by the partisanship of federal district court judges. Sometimes the law leaves room for interpretation. Sometimes it doesn’t address all circumstances that might arise. And sometimes judges blatantly ignore the law and rule with partisanship just to delay an administration’s initiatives. A party affiliation tells voters something real about a candidate’s values. Think back to the Supreme Court races this past May. Party labels would have helped voters understand the values of the candidates on the ballot.

While it may be too late to turn this ship around, voting No on Ballot Question No. 2 will slow it down. What voters should do is lobby their representatives and senator to move all nonpartisan elections to the general election in November. That way a larger portion of Georgia’s electorate will have their say in choosing judges.