Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has filed a formal complaint against David Dillie, the Democratic nominee for state House District 161, arguing that he does not meet the residency requirements to serve in the Georgia House of Representatives, the Georgia Recorder reported. The complaint was filed on October 21 with the Office of State Administrative Hearings.

Source: Georgia Recorder via Walton Tribune

District 161 is a Savannah-area seat spanning parts of Chatham and Effingham counties. Dillie, a 24-year-old mechanic for Gulfstream, qualified to run in March and ran unopposed in the May state primary. He is challenging Republican Rep. Bill Hitchens of Rincon, who has held the seat since 2012.

The allegation: a Georgia vote, then a Nevada vote

The complaint alleges that Dillie voted in Georgia's May 19 primary and then cast a ballot in Nevada's June 9 primary, and that investigators say he travelled to Nevada from June 6 to 9, according to the Recorder's reporting detailed by the Atlanta Patriot on October 23. Under Georgia law, a person who goes into another state and votes there is considered to have lost his residence in Georgia. The filing states that Dillie "is deemed by law to have lost his residence in the State of Georgia." No hearing date has been set.

Raffensperger's office first announced an investigation on September 24. "Voting in another state's primary while claiming to be a legal Georgia resident is a very serious allegation," Raffensperger said in that announcement. "My office has opened an investigation to gather all the evidence, determine the facts and take appropriate legal action." The office said its Investigations Division would obtain and review voting records, signatures and all other evidence. Nevada's secretary of state has confirmed to WTOC that it also has an open investigation.

Dillie's answer: 'I did not fill out that Nevada ballot'

Dillie denies that he voted in Nevada. He lived in the Las Vegas area until September 2024, when he moved back to coastal Georgia and registered there. He says he never cancelled his Nevada registration because he assumed moving cancelled it automatically. Under a Nevada law passed in 2021, the state mails a ballot to every active registered voter; Dillie says a ballot bearing his name went to his old address, a home owned by his godfather, and was returned and apparently counted in Nevada's Republican primary, according to documents obtained by The Current GA. "I did not fill out that Nevada ballot and I do not know who did," he has told reporters, adding that he is glad there is an investigation.

Hitchens has said records he has seen appear to show an in-person Georgia vote and an absentee Nevada vote — that is the incumbent's assessment, not a finding by investigators. Chatham County Democratic chair Aaron Whitely told the Recorder the party is taking a wait-and-see posture and that a substantive investigation is what it can ask for.

The timing leaves District 161 voters in limbo. Early voting in Georgia began on October 13, and the Recorder reports that more than 41,000 voters in Chatham and Effingham had already cast ballots by Thursday. Georgia law lets a party replace a disqualified nominee only until roughly ten days before the election — a window that closes this weekend — so a ruling after that point could leave Dillie's name on ballots already printed and cast, with notices in polling places about votes being void. No finding of wrongdoing has been announced, and the allegation remains for a hearing to decide.