The DeKalb County Board of Voter Registration and Elections has struck former Stonecrest Mayor Jason Lary from the Nov. 4 election for Stonecrest City Council District 5.
Lary led the movement to create Stonecrest, a city of about 61,000 in southeastern DeKalb County that was incorporated in 2017. He was Stonecrest’s first mayor.
Lary pleaded guilty in 2022 to wire fraud, conspiracy to defraud the United States and theft of federal program funds — all felonies. He reported to a federal prison in Alabama in January 2023 and moved to a halfway house in Atlanta last year before his release from U.S. Bureau of Prisons custody in February of this year.
He is now serving a three-year supervised release term.
During the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, he used shell companies and other deceptive tactics to pocket hundreds of thousands of dollars of federal relief funding that the city was supposed to distribute to small businesses. He used the money to pay the mortgage on a lake house and other debts.
Georgia law says people who have been convicted of a felony “involving moral turpitude” cannot hold elected office until at least 10 years after completing their sentences. The state must also restore their right to vote, which cannot be done during supervised release.
“I’m very disappointed,” Lary told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution on Thursday. “I know a gentleman with 34 felonies that was able to run and serve,” he added, referring to President Donald Trump.
Lary added that he applied to Trump for a pardon.
Two District 5 residents challenged Lary’s eligibility to run for office under state law. One, David Marcus, also asked the county elections board to remove Lary from the voter rolls, if necessary. Lary was still listed as an eligible voter earlier this week, according to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office.
The county elections board voted unanimously to strike Lary from the voter rolls and the ballot.
Credit: Ben Gray
Credit: Ben Gray
“There’s a lot of emotion in Stonecrest regarding Jason Lary,” Marcus told the elections board. “This is not about whether he stole a million dollars.
“He is on supervised release. He is not free and clear.”
The state regularly cancels felons’ voter registrations based on Department of Corrections and Georgia Bureau of Investigations records, but federal crime reporting has been intermittent in recent years, a spokesperson for the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office said. The U.S. Department of Justice has been reporting felons more regularly since President Donald Trump took office in January, the spokesperson said.
Lary last voted in the May 2022 Democratic primary election, after he pleaded guilty but before he was sentenced, records show.
The city of Stonecrest last month included Lary in a list of four candidates for the District 5 race and noted that all candidates were subject to eligibility challenges.
Lary did not attend Wednesday’s hearing because he was out of town for a funeral. A friend, Slew Wilkins, submitted documents on Lary’s behalf including bills and an informal email exchange with a sticky note indicating he had paid restitution.
Wilkins told the elections board Lary had completed his supervised release.
“Do you understand calendars?” Board Chair Karli Swift asked him.
An attorney for Stonecrest and the county elections board argued over whether the city should have refused to qualify Lary.
The former mayor had to sign and notarize an affidavit stating that he met the qualifications to run, said Alicia Thompson, the Stonecrest attorney. The affidavit plainly stated that anyone convicted of a felony “involving moral turpitude” must wait at least 10 years after the sentence’s completion, without a subsequent conviction of another such felony, before running for public office, Thompson said.
Credit: Hyosub Shin
Credit: Hyosub Shin
“Knowingly making a false statement, and the only remedy being for a citizen who happens to be paying attention to challenge it, that’s concerning to me,” elections board member Dele Lowman said.
Lary told the AJC he thought the 10-year rule did not apply if he had the right to vote.
During a public comment session before the vote, several Stonecrest residents asked the board to disqualify Lary.
“I can’t believe we’re even sitting here today having this discussion,” Donna Priest-Brown said.
Lary has said he wanted to run because he disagrees with some of the decisions current city leaders are making.
“Just let the people have their say,” he said. “If they don’t want me back in office, their vote is going to say so.”
Staff writer Mark Niesse contributed to this article.
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