Buckhead resident Mary Norwood, who needs 22,598 signatures to be on the ballot in November for District 1 (chairman) of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners, will be in Fulton County Superior Court Wednesday for a hearing on her lawsuit against the Committee to Elect John Eaves Inc.

The lawsuit, filed June 21 by her attorney, J. Matthew Maguire Jr. of Midtown-based law firm Balch and Bingham, also names the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections as a defendant.

The civil motion is a countermeasure to a June 11 letter sent to the election board’s director, Barry Garner, by Eaves’ campaign’s attorney, George W. “Buddy” Darden of Midtown-based law firm McKenna Long and Aldridge.

Darden said Ms. Norwood’s representative, Lori Lobel, asked April Pye, the board’s administration chief, whether “pre-printing the word ‘Fulton’ on each row of nomination petition pages would disqualify these signatures” from applying toward the 5 percent of 2009 eligible voters she needs.

“The information that Ms. Pye provided to the Norwood campaign is incorrect and contrary to the law. In no uncertain terms, the state of Georgia elections code requires that each elector must complete all her own information on the nomination petition,” Darden said.

According to the official code of Georgia, Section 21-2-170, each elector, or voter, “shall add to his or her signature his or her residence address, giving municipality, if any, and county.”

Ms. Norwood is seeking an emergency ruling that the signatures on her nomination petition remain valid.

“Ballot access is very difficult in Georgia,” she said. “In other states, I would have been on the ballot within the first week of our efforts. More than 44,000 people voted for me in December [for Atlanta mayor] so I know this is doable.”

Ms. Norwood said her signature collection campaign is “over halfway there” but Garner could not confirm a count.

“She has not turned any signatures in yet,” he said. “She has to turn them all in at one time. She has until July 13.”

To obtain the balance of signatures she needs, Ms. Norwood said her campaign hired Raleigh, N.C.-based Free and Equal Inc., specializing in helping “independent candidates acquiring ballot access.”

If successful, Ms. Norwood will face incumbent Democrat Eaves and Republican Steve Broadbent.

The hearing will be at 9:30 a.m. Wednesday before Superior Court Judge Jerry W. Baxter in the Fulton Justice Center Tower, 185 Central Ave. in downtown Atlanta, Courtroom 4D.

Ms. Norwood said this is not the same Jerry Baxter listed by the Common Cause Georgia website as a $500 contributor toward her $2.1 million Atlanta mayoral campaign.

“The Jerry Baxter who contributed to the Norwood campaign is Gerald L. Baxter,” she said about a personal friend who is an attorney at Buckhead law firm Greenberg Traurig.

— News Editor Everett Catts contributed to this report.