---
type: "Bill"
title: "Athens-Clarke County; chief magistrate judge; provide nonpartisan elections"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to provide that future elections for the office of chief magistrate judge of the magistrate court of Athens-Clarke County shall be nonpartisan elections held at the time of certain general primary elections; to provide for submission of this Act under the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended; to provide for related matters; to provide an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2013_14"
identifier: "HB 252"
citation: "Georgia HB 252 (2013_14)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Chuck Williams", "Regina Quick", "Spencer Frye"]
version_count: 2
action_count: 13
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2013-02-07"
last_action: "2013-04-24"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/9e8704d7-180d-4569-ba9c-e899b1241e66"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "393eafcbfa974b913ecbe69135ce489ebc430d961b9a8903f81064a00706d7ed"
vintage: "2026-07-01"
source_snapshot: "https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump"
retrieved_at: "2026-07-06"
confidence: "reported"
tags: ["legislation", "bill", "us-ga"]
---

# Georgia HB 252 (2013_14) — Athens-Clarke County; chief magistrate judge; provide nonpartisan elections

A BILL to be entitled an Act to provide that future elections for the office of chief magistrate judge of the magistrate court of Athens-Clarke County shall be nonpartisan elections held at the time of certain general primary elections; to provide for submission of this Act under the federal Voting Rights Act of 1965, as amended; to provide for related matters; to provide an effective date; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

## Version chain

The bill's text revisions, in order — the diff chain from filing to enrollment.

1. **HB 252/AP*** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20132014/133583.pdf)
2. **LC 21 1922/a** (committee substitute) — [source](http://www.legis.ga.gov/Legislation/20132014/130118.pdf)

## Votes

- PASSAGE — **150–23** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Chuck Williams — primary (person)
- Regina Quick — primary (person)
- Spencer Frye — primary (person)

## Timeline

The legislative action history — every referral, reading, and vote.

- **2013-02-07** House Hopper
- **2013-02-08** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2013-02-11** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2013-02-19** House Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2013-02-27** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2013-02-27** House Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2013-02-28** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2013-03-04** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2013-03-04** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2013-04-01** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2013-04-24** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2013-04-24** Act 47 `executive-signature`
- **2013-04-24** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/9e8704d7-180d-4569-ba9c-e899b1241e66`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).