The Republican Party in Georgia’s most populous county is suing local elected officials over the rejection of a party candidate for a seat on the county’s Electoral Board, saying he will be fined for attempting to clean up voter rolls.
In the lawsuit filed Friday, the Fulton County Republican Party is asking a judge to order the county’s board of commissioners to appoint Jason Frazier to the county’s board of elections and registration. Fulton County, which includes most of the city of Atlanta, is a Democratic stronghold.
Frazier recently filed challenges to the voting eligibility of thousands of Fulton County voters. The Republican lawsuit states that both state and federal laws permit such challenges and that his “demonstrated commitment to maintaining the integrity” of state elections makes him “uniquely qualified to assist in the county election process.” That’s why the county’s Republican Party nominated him for the election committee, the lawsuit states.
The five-member circuit board consists of two people nominated by the county Republican party, two people nominated by the county Democratic party, and a chairperson nominated by the committee of commissioners. The commissioners appointed a chair in May and voted unanimously on June 7 to approve the two Democratic nominees and one Republican nominee. However, Frazier’s nomination was rejected twice, on June 7 and June 21, with only the two Republican commissioners voting to approve his nomination at each time.
The complaint names the Board of Commissioners and each of the seven commissioners as defendants. The Associated Press emailed each commissioner asking for comment on the lawsuit.
The lawsuit describes the commissioners’ rejection of Frazier’s nomination as a “cynical act of partisanship.”
“They did so because Frazier was trying to force Fulton County to sanitize its voter rolls,” the lawsuit states. “Rather than commend Frazier for his efforts, the Board of Commissioners punished him.”
The lawsuit states that the commissioners broke the law in rejecting his nomination, noting that Fulton County Code states that commissioners are to “appoint two members from nominations” submitted by leaders of the Republican and democratic district parties of the district were made. During the June 7 meeting, the district attorney confirmed that Frazier met the qualifications to serve on the district election commission, and no commissioner disputed this, the lawsuit says.
Republican Commission Vice Chairman Bob Ellis warned that not approving Frazier’s nomination could result in a lawsuit.
Democratic commissioners said during the June 7 meeting that while they are required to nominate two candidates proposed by each party, that does not mean they have to approve any particular proposed candidate.
Fulton County has had election problems in the past, including long lines before the election and delays in reporting results. After a particularly difficult primary election in 2020, an independent observer was appointed under a consent agreement between the county and the state election committee to observe the general election that year. The observer said the county’s elections were poorly managed, but found no evidence of fraud.
Former President Donald Trump focused on Fulton County after narrowly losing Georgia to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 general election. He made baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud in the county.
Republican lawmakers used a sweeping 2021 election law to appoint a review panel to decide whether the state should handle Fulton County elections. This body submitted its final report to the state electoral commission in January, citing improvements and discouraging state takeover. The state board voted last month to end that performance review.
