Georgia

Georgia has a "plural executive." Rather than a single governor who appoints the whole cabinet, voters elect a long list of statewide officials independently, so the Governor does not command them and they can even belong to a different party.

The separately elected constitutional officers are the Governor, the Lieutenant Governor, the Secretary of State, the Attorney General, and the State School Superintendent. Georgia goes further than most states by also electing three department heads directly: the Commissioner of Agriculture, the Commissioner of Insurance, and the Commissioner of Labor. On top of that, the five members of the Public Service Commission, which regulates utilities, are elected statewide.

The Lieutenant Governor is worth a special note: in Georgia the office is elected on its own (not as a ticket with the Governor) and its main job is presiding over the State Senate, which makes it a genuinely powerful legislative post, not a ceremonial understudy.

The Georgia General Assembly is bicameral: a 56-seat State Senate and a 180-seat House of Representatives, for 236 lawmakers in all. Members of both chambers serve two-year terms, and there are no term limits.

This is a part-time "citizen legislature." Members are paid a modest salary ($24,342 a year) plus a $247-per-day allowance while in session, and most hold regular jobs back home. The General Assembly convenes once a year on the second Monday in January and is constitutionally limited to 40 legislative days, counted as working days, not calendar days, so leaders space them out and the session typically runs into late March or early April.

A bill is introduced in either chamber, assigned to a committee, and, if it survives committee, scheduled for a floor vote (the Rules Committee controls what reaches the House floor). After passing one chamber it repeats the process in the other; a conference committee reconciles any differences before a final vote.

Georgia runs on a two-year cycle, so a bill that stalls in the first year carries over to the second. A key internal deadline called "Crossover Day" (around the 28th legislative day) is the point by which a bill must clear at least one chamber to stay alive for the year. The session ends "Sine Die" on the 40th day. The Governor can sign a bill, veto it, or let it become law without a signature; the General Assembly can override a veto with a two-thirds vote of each chamber.

One thing Georgia does not have: a citizen ballot initiative. Voters cannot put statutes on the ballot themselves, only the legislature can refer measures, and constitutional amendments require a two-thirds vote of each chamber before going to voters for ratification.

The Governor appoints the heads of the agencies that are not independently elected, fills judicial vacancies, can call the legislature into special session, and wields significant emergency powers. On the budget the Governor is unusually strong: Georgia grants a line-item veto, letting the Governor strike individual appropriations rather than having to accept or reject a spending bill whole.

The striking limit is clemency. Unlike most governors, Georgia’s Governor cannot grant pardons, paroles, or commutations. That power belongs entirely to the independent five-member State Board of Pardons and Paroles. The Governor appoints board members (subject to Senate confirmation) to staggered terms, but does not make clemency decisions.

Georgia selects its judges through nonpartisan elections. The Supreme Court (the state’s highest court) and the Court of Appeals (the intermediate appellate court) sit above the Superior Courts, which are the main trial courts handling felonies and civil cases, alongside State, Probate, Magistrate, and Juvenile courts. When a seat opens mid-term the Governor appoints a replacement from a slate vetted by a Judicial Nominating Commission, and that appointee then stands in the next nonpartisan election.