Austin drops his bid for state House

On Frank Austin’s day in court, the would-be candidate for a state House seat in Macon-Bibb said he is instead abandoning the residency appeal that was his only chance to get on the ballot.

Austin wanted to appeal a state ruling that he has not lived in state House District 142 long enough to qualify to run for the seat.

But less than an hour before his scheduled appearance in Fulton County Superior Court to challenge the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office, Austin announced via written message that he was withdrawing his petition for appeal.

“It was highly likely that the judge would have overturned the state’s decision,” Austin wrote. But he said there is already too much confusion in this election cycle.

Candidates must live in a district for a full year ahead of a state House general election. The investigation of Austin was triggered when another candidate, Gerald Harvey, filed a complaint with the Secretary of State’s office.

Last month, an administrative law judge ruled that Austin has lived in the district only since this past March. He needed to have lived there since November 8, 2015, to qualify to run.

That administrative law judge found that Austin had not changed the address on his driver’s license or his voter registration to the Bethesda Avenue address in the district until this year. The house also was without water service for much of the past year. Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp formally accepted that ruling last month and announced that votes for Austin would not count.

That’s when Austin filed the appeal that he dropped Thursday.

“This in my opinion is the best option for the voters in Macon-Bibb,” Austin wrote.

The election is on May 24, and many people already have voted early.

That leaves two candidates in the race, both Democrats: Harvey and Miriam Paris. No Republican qualified to run, so the winner of the May 24 race will join the state House in January.

Correction: A previous version of this story misquoted Frank Austin on his reason for leaving the race.

This story was originally published May 19, 2016 at 9:39 AM with the headline "Austin drops his bid for state House."