Georgia's Fulton County shelves vote on controversial Republican election officials

ATLANTA (CN) — The board of commissioners for Georgia’s most populous county declined to vote Wednesday on the appointment of two Republican nominees to its election board, as it appeals an order instructing them to seat the controversial nominations.

Five of the seven Fulton County Board of Commissioners voted to postpone the decision until the appellate court rules on the matter.

The anticipated vote comes after a judge ordered the county to pay $10,000 a day until it appoints the state Republican Party’s two nominees to its election board.

Fulton Superior Court Judge David Emerson held the board in contempt after finding it hadn’t complied with his earlier order interpreting the term “shall” under Georgia’s law as meaning the nominees must be appointed.

But last week, Emerson put a pause on his ruling after the commissioners informed the judge they will be appealing his contempt order.

“I think that we can all agree that we are a nation of laws, but we are at a moment in history in which even the president of the United States himself has set the tone that if a judge or if a court issues a ruling that he disagrees with, he just ignores it and does what he wants to do. And I think a lot of what’s being done now is coming about as a result of what’s happening in Washington,” Chairman Robb Pitts said.

“It seems to me that the prudent thing to do is let this play out in the appellate court. And we seem to be pretty firm in our belief that we will prevail,” he added.

Wednesday’s meeting marked the third time members have considered the nominations of Julie Adams and Jason Frazier, after Democratic commissioners voted to not approve them in May over concerns about their credibility.

Adams, a sitting election board member, abstained from certifying primary election results last year and unsuccessfully sued the board claiming she has discretion to refuse to certify the results.

Frazier has challenged the eligibility of roughly 10,000 voters in Fulton County, Georgia’s largest base of Democratic voters. He is one of just a handful of conservative activists who, often assisted by right-wing organizations, have taken on a greater role in launching a flurry of voter challenges across the state after it passed a law following the 2020 election allowing anyone to contest an unlimited amount of voters’ qualifications.

His mass challenges led him to being previously denied twice a spot on the county election board in 2023.

The Fulton County Republican Party then sued the county commission over Frazier’s nomination, claiming his rejection was “because Frazier had sought to compel Fulton County to clean up its voter rolls.”

After a monthslong fight over seating a second Republican nominee, Adams was nominated and approved to serve a two-year term that expired in June.

During Wednesday’s meeting, Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. urged his colleagues to vote on the nominations and said the Republican party should submit alternate nominations for a vote.

“Fulton County did not create the nominations and appointment process. A nomination is a recommendation. It is a suggestion,” Arrington said.

“This is not something new. These nominations have failed,” he added.

Other members expressed concern with the mounting cost of court fees on local taxpayers. Republican Bridget Thorne said that the state’s Republican Party only pulled Frazier’s previous nomination because it didn’t want to fight a lengthy court battle. She warned that the controversial nominees now have the support of the Republican National Committee, which has the funds to support their case no matter the cost.

Thorne advised the board to just approve the nominations, as the two Republicans will be in the minority with limited power anyways.

The election board in Fulton County, which includes most of the city of Atlanta, is made up of five people. The Board of Commissioners chooses the chair, and the county Republican and Democratic parties each nominate two people to be appointed by the commissioners. Nominees must live in Fulton County, be registered to vote and cannot be public office holders.

“We’re not going to listen to the judge because we don’t like it? Isn’t that what they accuse the Republicans of doing? We have to listen across the aisle. We have to talk it through,” Thorne said.

“We all want fair, accountable and transparent elections,” she added.

Commissioner Dana Barrett said her vote on the nominees remains a no, but that she agreed the board should wait and let the process play out in court.

The Democrat also questioned why the Republican Party is particularly adamant about appointing Adams and Frazier.

“Why is the Republican party so insistent that it be these two people? Why not send us two other nominees?” Barrett asked.

Multiple residents spoke out against the nominees being approved during public commentary, referring to Adams and Frazier as “election deniers” who would undermine public confidence in elections.

Commissioner Khadijah Abdur-Rahman called out Fair Fight, an organization founded to fight voter suppression in 2018 by former Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams, for sending out emails and texts to the community with “no one’s name on it but mine.” The Democrat criticized hypocrisy in activists who only “want things to go their way when it benefits them.”

“I vote policy. I vote issue. Sometimes it may be something you don’t like. Sometimes it may be something you do like, but at the end of the day you can’t bully me, because at the end of the day the Republicans are not my problem,” Abdur-Rahman said.

She encouraged the public to focus on more important issues, such as renovation plans for the Fulton County Jail and its dangerous conditions that came under probe by the U.S. Department of Justice last year.

“Can we get that same energy about the people that died in the jail? That same energy about this ever-increasing homeless population that we have in Atlanta. Can we get that same energy about seniors that are being displaced every day?” the commissioner added.

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