ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia appeals court ruled on Friday that the state's largest county doesn't have to appoint two Republican nominees to the county election board, a decision that could tamp down GOP challenges to how elections are administered in predominantly Democratic areas.
The state Court of Appeals found that while elected leaders of Fulton County must appoint two county election board members from nominees provided by the county Republican
Party, county commissioners have the freedom to reject names and ask for other choices.
The Democratic majority on the Fulton County Commission voted last year to reject Republican nominees Julie Adams and Jason Frazier, saying their actions made them unsuitable to serve. The county Republican Party sued, and a judge ordered the commissioners to vote to approve the Adams and Frazier, finding the board in contempt after they refused. Friday's ruling means the county won't have to pay a contempt fine of $10,000 a day that had been stayed pending appeal.
In a unanimous opinion by a three-judge panel, Presiding Judge Anne Barnes wrote that commissioners are required to choose from a list of Republican nominees, but “were acting within their own lawful and discretionary authority when they declined to seat” the party's choices. She wrote that the solution is for the Republican Party to submit new nominees.
Republicans could appeal to the state Supreme Court, but justices don’t have to take the case. A lawyer for the county Republican Party didn’t immediately respond to an email asking if an appeal is planned.
The five-person county election board includes a chair selected by commissioners and two nominees each from the county Republican and Democratic parties who are then appointed by the commissioners. To be eligible, nominees must live in Fulton County, be registered to vote and cannot hold or be candidates for public office.
Adams has served on the election board since February 2024. She abstained from certifying primary election results last year and unsuccessfully sued the election board seeking a ruling saying county officials can refuse to certify elections. Frazier has formally challenged the eligibility of thousands of Fulton County voters. Both are important figures in a Republican coalition that continues to challenge the validity of Donald Trump's 2020 loss in Georgia and press for changes in how elections are conducted.
Adams' term expired in June. But she remains on the election board until she or a replacement is appointed to fill her seat. The other Republican seat remains vacant.
Frazier said the ruling gives too much latitude for Democratic commissioners to force Republicans to appoint nominees that Democrats like.
“If this holds, the Dems on the Fulton County Board of Commissioners can essentially pick their Dem Board of Elections Members, The Chair AND THE REPUBLICANS!!!!!!!!” Frazier wrote on social media.
Fulton County Commissioner Dana Barrett, a Democrat who cites her vote against seating Adams and Frazier in her run for Georgia secretary of state this year, hailed the ruling against seating the “MAGA extremists.”
“The contempt charges, the fines, the threats of jail time — all overturned by today’s ruling,” Barrett said in a statement. “This is a huge win for Georgia voters and a win for free, fair, and secure elections.”
Most election boards across Georgia are appointed in the same way as Fulton County, and Friday's ruling could let county commissions broadly reject political party nominees they disagree with. In metro Atlanta, that could mean Democratic county commissioners will be able to reject Republican activists who contend Democratic counties aren’t conducting elections properly, but it could also diminish Democrats’ ability to be represented on election boards in Republican areas of the state.
A 2018 state Supreme Court ruling had already weakened the ability of parties to automatically place nominees on election boards.
In 2024, Cherokee County, a heavily Republican Atlanta suburb, considered appointing only one Democrat to the county's five-member election board. Rejecting that, commissioners then chose a Democrat who was unknown to county Democratic Party leaders, instead of the party's nominee.
