CAIRO — Jeremiah Horne has been disqualified from running for Cairo City Council, following city elections superintendent Dana Barfield’s ruling Thursday afternoon.

Barfield ruled that Horne is not a resident nor has a domicile in Cairo’s District 4. 

Incumbent Jimmy Douglas, who is running for re-election, challenged Horne’s candidacy and Barfield conducted a hearing Wednesday evening at Cairo City Hall. 

In Barfield’s ruling, she found that Horne submitted a voter registration card, driver’s license, motor vehicle registration, billing notice and a Grady County Tax Assessor’s information card showing the address for a mobile home on 7th Avenue in Cairo as evidence of residency at his Highway 84 address.

Douglas said during the hearing he had just one question for Horne.

“The only question I’d like ask is for Mr. Horne, his wife and his child, to say that they live in a shop at 745 Highway 84 East and not on the Pelham Road next to Shiver School,” he said.

Horne replied he had multiple residences, including one near Shiver Elementary School.

“My wife and my kids, we make a home there by Shiver School,” he said.

Horne’s attorney cited a state statute that says a spouse’s domicile should not be part of the consideration for a candidate’s residency requirement. He added Horne did not dispute living near Shiver Elementary School and that he has multiple properties and residences in Cairo. 

For purposes of voting and registering to vote, Horne has established his residence at 745 Highway 84 East, according to his counsel. 

Horne said he has been registered at another Highway 84 address for nine or 10 years, and was registered at another address prior to that. 

He said he established his residence at 745 Highway 84 East “probably a year-and-a-half ago.”

The building at 745 Highway 84 East “is of a commercial nature, located in a highway commercial zone, and not of a residential nature,” Barfield wrote. “It would not be defined as a home.”

Barfield added that Horne admitted he maintained a home on Highway 93 North, which is outside the city limits.