Pickens County Candidates for the 2014 elections had opportunity until 12 noon today to qualify for state and local races. A couple of surprises did occur in the 2.5 day process. Along with incumbents and an already anticipated county commission challenger, two additional challengers for school board seats did qualify during the period.As of noon today the candidates that have qualified are:

Commission Seat, District One:

—-Jerry Barnes (I) (R)
—-Bart Connelly (R)

School Board

Post 2:
—-Wendy Lowe (I) (R)
—-Daniel Bell (R)

Post 3:
—-Byron Long (I) (R)

Post 5:
—-Dan Fincher (I) (R)
—-Delane Lewis (R)

Three school board seats and one county commission seat will be up for grabs on the May 20th ballot. Also set for vote on that date is the local SPLOST (Special Purpose Local Option Sales Tax) referendum which is set to address roads, public works and the library among other things.

The following pictures were taken during the qualifying process. After the pictures the candidates for state elections are listed.

Republican leader Teb Bowman and Jerry Barnes pose as Barnes qualifies seeking re-election to the District One Commission Seat.

Present Board Member Wendy Lowe goes over her qualifying paperwork with Teb Bowman for the three open school board seats in the current election.

School Board Post 5 challenger Delane Lewis completes her qualifying paperwork as Republican leader Teb Bowman watches.

Georgia Governor

—-John Barge (R)
—-Nathan Deal (R)
—-David Pennington (R)
—-Jason Carter (D)

Lt. Governor

—-Casey Cagle (I) (R)
—-Connie Stokes (D)

State School Superintendent

—-Mary Kay Baccalao (R)
—-Ashley Bell (R)
—-Michael Buck (R)
—-Sharyl Dawes (R)
—-Tarnisha Dent (D)
—-Allen Fort (R)
—-Marion “Denise” Freeman (D)
—-Nancy Jester (R)
—-T. Fitz Johnson (R)
—-Jurita Mays (D)
—-Alisha Morgan (D)
—-R “Rita” Robinzine (D)
—-Valarie Wilson (D)
—-Richard Woods (R)
—-Kira Willis (R)

United States Senate:

—-Paul Broun (R)
—-Arthur “Art” Gardner (R)
—-JP “Phil” Gingrey (R)
—-Derrick Grayson (R)
—-Karen Handel (R)
—-JH “Jack” Kingston (R)
—-David Perdue (R)
—-O. “Steen” Miles (D)
—-Michelle Nunn (D)
—-Branko Radulovacki (D)
—-Todd Robinson (D)

U.S. Representative, District 9:

—-Douglas “Doug” Collins (I) (R)
—-Bernard Fontaine (R)
—-David Vogel (D)

U.S. Representative, District 14:

—-JT “Tom Graves (I) (R)
—-Kenneth Herron (R)

Georgia House of Representatives, District 11:

—-Rick Jasperse (I) (R)
—-Charles Hendrix (D)

(I) indicates incumbent status. (R) indicates an incumbent