Gwinnett County voters will see different local races and questions on Nov. 3, depending on where they live: a school property tax exemption, two county commission seats, city council specials in Norcross and Lawrenceville and a Suwanee homestead exemption. Voters can use any advance in-person location in the county through Oct. 30, according to the county’s elections page [1]. The county’s consolidated sample ballot lists the commission races and the school question for Districts 2 and 4 and the school district. The city races and the Suwanee question are not on it.
Commission District 2. Commissioner Ben Ku (D) faces Rodolfo Ochoa (R). Each won their party’s May 19 primary with every vote cast, Ku with 20,590 and Ochoa with 6,203 [2]. Ku won re-election in 2022 with 39,020 votes, or 65.7% [3].
Commission District 4. Commissioner Matthew Holtkamp (R) faces Benjamin L. Culberson (D). Holtkamp won the Republican primary with 14,787 votes, or 87.2%, and Culberson won the Democratic primary [2]. Holtkamp won the seat in 2022 with 48,209 votes, or 56.4% [3].
City specials. Norcross and Lawrenceville each hold a special election for a city council seat. Norcross announced two qualified candidates, Jeffrey Allen and Bucky Johnson, for the rest of the term Marshall Cheek held. The city’s notice lists advance voting at Norcross City Hall from Oct. 13 through Oct. 30 and on Saturday, Oct. 17, and Saturday, Oct. 24, from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Lawrenceville’s page lists one qualified candidate for Council Post 1, Darion Ward.
School homestead exemption. The act names the electors of the Gwinnett County school district as the voters on this question, which reads: “Shall the existing additional $2,000 homestead exemption from Gwinnett County School District ad valorem taxes for education purposes for certain public service employees be expanded to also apply to disabled veterans and all employees of the Gwinnett County School District and the Buford City School District?”
The question comes from House Bill 540, Act 202 of 2025 [4]. The bill expands a $2,000 exemption from school district property taxes for certain public service employees. Its revised definition of that term lists firefighters, paramedics, peace officers and other law enforcement officers, employees of the two school districts, people employed by or holding staff privileges at a hospital in Gwinnett County, members of the armed forces and disabled veterans. If more than half of voters approve, the change takes effect Jan. 1, 2027. The bill’s text sets the vote for “the date of the general primary in 2026.” The county’s sample ballot lists the question under Special Election. Gwinnett’s May 19 primary ballot also carried a countywide question titled “Homestead Exemption,” which passed 92,066 to 53,058, according to the Secretary of State’s results [2]. Those results do not print the question’s wording, so GApolitics could not confirm whether it was this exemption.
Suwanee. Suwanee voters have their own question on a city homestead exemption. It does not appear on the county’s sample ballot, because the city runs its own election. House Bill 1074 prescribes this wording: “Shall the Act be approved which provides a homestead exemption from City of Suwanee ad valorem taxes for municipal purposes in the amount of $15,000.00 of the assessed value of the homestead for residents of that city?” The act says the exemption would apply to city taxes only, not county, school or state taxes, and would take effect for tax years beginning on or after Jan. 1, 2027. Residents would have to apply.
What groups have said. GApolitics ran web searches on Oct. 15 for published positions on both homestead questions and found none from an outside group. For the school question, the places on GApolitics’ search list were the Gwinnett County Democratic and Republican parties, the Gwinnett Chamber, the Atlanta-North Georgia Labor Council, the Georgia AFL-CIO, educator associations, police and firefighter associations, the Georgia and Gwinnett Farm Bureaus, taxpayer groups, PTAs and school foundations. GApolitics did not locate a school board resolution. For Suwanee, the list was both county parties, the Gwinnett Chamber, the Suwanee Business Alliance, the labor council, the AFL-CIO, the Farm Bureaus, taxpayer groups and nonprofits. GApolitics did not locate a City Council resolution, and the city’s website did not open for the search. The list also names any campaign committee on each question, and none was located.