Georgia Public Service Commission election: What you need to know

Primary elections begin for Georgia Public Service Commission

Georgia voters will get the chance to decide who sets their power bill rates on Tuesday during the primary elections for two of the five seats on the Public Service Commission.

Voters across Georgia will head to the polls on Tuesday to have their say on who can make decisions over what they see on their utility bills.

Primary elections for two of the five seats on the Georgia Public Service Commission are up for grabs. It's the first race in five years due to a lawsuit over how Georgia's districts were drawn.

What we know:

The Georgia Public Service Commission is the body elected statewide that regulates utilities such as gas and electricity. It has power over what Georgia Power, the state's largest electric provider, can charge customers for electricity.

Seven candidates are running for two seats on the commission. The eighth, Daniel Blackman, was disqualified after a judge ruled he hadn’t moved into the district in time to meet the November 2024 deadline.

A "Vote Here" sign directs voters to a precinct during the presidential primary elections in Atlanta on March 12, 2024. (Photo by ELIJAH NOUVELAGE/AFP via Getty Images)

In recent years, the Commission approved multiple hikes to utility prices. In May, Georgia Power cut a deal with the commission's Public Interest Advocacy staff to freeze its base rate until 2028.

As part of the tentative agreement, the utility will also push back its request to recoup storm damage losses until 2026.

That deal must still be approved by the PSC after public hearings this month.

The five-member commission, currently all Republicans, also oversees some natural gas rates for Atlanta Gas Light and Liberty Gas.

Dig deeper:

There are two separate primary elections taking place. A voter can choose either a Republican ballot or a Democratic ballot. In each race, candidates must live in a certain district, but run statewide.

In the District 2 Republican primary, Lee Muns of Harlem is challenging incumbent Commissioner Tim Echols, who lives in Hoschton. Echols has been on the Public Service Commission since 2011. The winner will face Democrat Alicia Johnson of Augusta in November.

In the District 3 Democratic primary, three people are vying to challenge Republican incumbent Fitz Johnson in November. They are Peter Hubbard and Keisha Waites of Atlanta and Robert Jones of Brookhaven. If no Democrat wins a majority on Tuesday, a runoff will be held on July 15.

Georgia usually doesn’t have statewide elections in odd-numbered years, but these were pushed back after elections were delayed by a lawsuit that unsuccessfully challenged the statewide voting scheme as discriminatory to Black people. No Georgia Public Service Commission elections have been held since 2022 because of the lawsuit.

Johnson was appointed to the commission in 2021 by Gov. Brian Kemp and has never faced voters. He was supposed to run for the last two years of his predecessor’s term in 2022. Instead, the District 3 winner can run again next year for a six-year term, after lawmakers rewrote the terms.

Echols was supposed to run for a six-year term in 2022. Instead, the District 2 winner will serve for five years, with the next election in 2030.

What you can do:

Eligible voters can cast their ballot at their assigned polling place from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. Those in line by 7 p.m. will still be allowed to vote.

Some Gwinnett County polling places have been changed. You can find the list of changes here.

You can find your assigned polling place on the Georgia Secretary of State's My Voter Page.