---
type: "Bill"
title: "Thomas County; Magistrate Court chief judge; provide nonpartisan elections"
description: "A BILL to be entitled an Act to provide that future elections for the office of chief judge of the Magistrate Court of Thomas County shall be nonpartisan elections; to provide for the sitting chief judge of the magistrate court to serve out his or her term of office; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes."
jurisdiction: "us/states/ga"
legislature: "Georgia General Assembly"
session: "2017_18"
identifier: "HB 934"
citation: "Georgia HB 934 (2017_18)"
classification: ["bill"]
subjects: []
status: "enacted"
primary_sponsors: ["Darlene Taylor", "John LaHood", "Sam Watson"]
version_count: 0
action_count: 13
vote_count: 1
first_action: "2018-02-14"
last_action: "2018-05-03"
source: "openstates"
source_identifier: "ocd-bill/5f95858d-99a8-41d1-b536-26be00baa733"
source_url: "http://webservices.legis.ga.gov/GGAServices/Legislation/Service.svc?wsdl"
source_hash: "d5bf0c75fddc9e093f6b157a57ab9e5dc53e49a8478ff7efcd0533969605f39f"
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 934 (2017_18) — Thomas County; Magistrate Court chief judge; provide nonpartisan elections

A BILL to be entitled an Act to provide that future elections for the office of chief judge of the Magistrate Court of Thomas County shall be nonpartisan elections; to provide for the sitting chief judge of the magistrate court to serve out his or her term of office; to provide for related matters; to repeal conflicting laws; and for other purposes.

## Version chain

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


## Votes

- PASSAGE — **112–50** (pass) · lower

## Sponsors

- Darlene Taylor — primary (person)
- John LaHood — primary (person)
- Sam Watson — primary (person)

## Timeline

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

- **2018-02-14** House Hopper
- **2018-02-15** House First Readers `reading-1`
- **2018-02-20** House Second Readers `reading-2`
- **2018-02-22** House Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-02-26** House Third Readers `reading-3`
- **2018-02-26** House Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2018-02-28** Senate Read and Referred `referral-committee`
- **2018-03-09** Senate Committee Favorably Reported `committee-passage-favorable`
- **2018-03-09** Senate Passed/Adopted `passage`
- **2018-04-04** House Sent to Governor `executive-receipt`
- **2018-05-03** House Date Signed by Governor `executive-signature`
- **2018-05-03** Act 396 `executive-signature`
- **2018-05-03** Effective Date

## Source

OpenStates / OpenCivicData bulk snapshot [2026-07-01](https://data.openstates.org/daily/2026-07-01/public.pgdump); origin `ocd-bill/5f95858d-99a8-41d1-b536-26be00baa733`. Confidence: reported (aggregated from official Georgia legislature records).