Fairburn residents will head

to the polls Sept. 17 to elect a new councilman.

The city found itself short

one councilman when Gene Wiggins submitted his letter of resignation April

15.

Monday night, the City Council

set the election date, and also established the qualifying period as Aug.

12-14.

City attorney Brad Sears said

whoever wins the race will have to turn around and run again in 2003,

when Wiggins' term was set to expire.

The City Council also established

city clerk Nancy Faulkner as the election superintendent.

Faulkner said the September

election would probably be the last for paper ballots in the city.

"The state is going to

electronic voting, but we won't have that ready for the special election,"

she said.

She added that an electronic

machine will be on display during the election for voters to view and

see how it operates.