Georgia State Election Board declines to seize control of Fulton County elections, for now

WINDER, Ga. — Georgia’s State Election Board did not move to take control of Fulton County’s elections at a closely watched meeting this week, but at least one board member left the door open for future intervention.  In the aftermath of a widely publicized raid on the county’s election warehouse in January, there has been […]

A widely publicized raid on the county’s election warehouse has revived speculation over whether the State Election Board would attempt to take over Fulton County's election operations. Maya Homan/Georgia Recorder

WINDER, Ga. — Georgia’s State Election Board did not move to take control of Fulton County’s elections at a closely watched meeting this week, but at least one board member left the door open for future intervention. 

In the aftermath of a widely publicized raid on the county’s election warehouse in January, there has been renewed speculation over whether the board would attempt to take over election operations in the county, which is a Democratic stronghold and home to much of the city of Atlanta.

FBI raids Fulton County elections warehouse seeking 2020 ballots

On the first day of a two-day meeting held in Winder, board member Janelle King signaled she had not closed the door on taking further action once more information became available.

“I’m waiting to see what happens with the DOJ and the FBI seizure, and see what comes out of that,” she told reporters Wednesday. 

Roughly 700 boxes of election records were seized during the raid, which coincided with President Donald Trump’s repeated calls for the Republican Party to “nationalize” voting and take over elections in the United States in “15 places.” Fulton County Commission Chair Robb Pitts has filed a lawsuit against the federal government seeking the return of the documents. A hearing in that case is scheduled for next Friday.

The State Election Board also passed a measure this week seeking access to the Fulton County election records once they have been returned from the U.S. Department of Justice’s custody.

At least one state lawmaker, Cumming Republican state Sen. Greg Dolezal, has publicly called for the Trump-aligned board to take over elections in Fulton County, claiming that the county has failed to properly maintain its voter rolls. Trump also boosted a story about Dolezal’s push in a social media post Tuesday.

Dolezal continued to call for a state takeover as the board was meeting in Winder. 

“We’ve seen the shenanigans of 2020,” he said in a speech Wednesday in the state Senate. “We’ve seen broken laws in 2024. We’ve seen gross negligence in the maintenance of the voter rolls, and unfortunately, it is now time for the State Election Board to step up and step in and begin the process of replacing the election superintendent in Fulton County.”

Pitts, who appeared at the meeting Thursday, said that county officials had and would continue to obey the law.

“As long as we’re compliant with the laws, I’m satisfied, and we have released everything that we were legally required to do,” he said. “But we were not, unless directed to do so, going to release anything that would contain any personal information, people who voted absentee, personal identification, name, address, telephone number, Social Security, things like that. We’re not going to do that.”

Under a sweeping election law passed in 2021, the State Election Board was empowered to take over underperforming county election boards, though the board voted down a similar push to take over Fulton County’s elections in 2023. The panel is primarily tasked with overseeing cases involving potential violations of election laws and issuing guidance to help elections run more smoothly.

Fulton County, a Democratic stronghold which is home to much of the city of Atlanta, was also at the center of President Donald Trump’s baseless claims that the 2020 election was stolen in Georgia and other swing states. Two recounts, including one done by hand, affirmed former President Joe Biden’s narrow victory in Georgia.

The central claims used to justify last month’s FBI raid include allegations of missing ballot images, duplicated ballots, irregularities with tabulator tapes and other issues that have been widely debunked in the more than five years since the election. Additionally, previous investigations into the 2020 election did not find any merit to the claims of rampant voting fraud or intentional misconduct by Fulton election workers and leadership.

Ahead of this week’s meeting, held in Winder, a group of Georgia-based faith leaders gathered to speak out against what they saw as an attack on the voting rights of Fulton County residents.

“What happened in Fulton County does not stay in Fulton County,” said the Rev. Willie “Bo” Barber II of Prospect AME Church in the Columbus area. “It also travels into Newton County, into Bibb County, Muscogee County, Chatham County, all over the state of Georgia.”

Barber also voiced concerns that the seizure of election documents would lead to voters staying home on election day out of fear of the federal government.

“It will set a precedence that says that the private information of individuals — showing how we vote, showing where we live — will be fodder for those that would hold up injustices,” he said.

Democrats in the state Legislature also echoed those sentiments.

“It is ridiculous that we’re spending taxpayer money trying to make Trump feel better,” said Sen. Nikki Merritt, a Grayson Democrat who chairs the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus. “I think there is a move to interfere with our elections in the state of Georgia, and this is just a step in that direction.”

On Wednesday, the board also voted to subpoena Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger over a case involving an alleged double voter in Fulton County. The board subsequently voted 3-0 to allow the executive director to hire a private investigator for a pilot project Thursday.

The board’s next meeting will be held on March 18 at Marietta City Hall.

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