Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger called on the Fulton County Commission to follow a judge’s order to appoint two Republican party nominees to the Fulton County Board of Elections.
With a 2-2 vote, the commissioners failed to appoint Julie Adams and Jason Frazier to the board of elections on Aug. 20. Commissioners Bridget Thorne and Bob Ellis voted for the appointments, with Commissioners Dana Barrett and Mo Ivory voting against. Commission Chair Robb Pitts and Commissioner Khadijah Abdur-Rahman left the meeting before the item was heard and Commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr. did not attend the meeting in person.
“I call on the Fulton Commission to follow the rule of law and appoint all bipartisan appointees, not just the ones they prefer,” Raffensperger said in a news release after the vote. “If elected officials expect Georgians to respect and follow the law, then they must first set that example themselves. Following the law and the Constitution isn’t reserved for when we agree with the outcome.”
The Fulton County Republican Party filed an emergency motion for civil and criminal contempt against Commissioners Pitts, Barrett, Ivory, Arrington, and Abdur-Rahman on Aug. 21 in superior court. The motion said those commissioners have been willfully refusing to comply with a court order to appoint the nominees.
Ellis and Thorne, who voted to appoint Adams and Frazier, were excluded from the motion seeking contempt charges.
Senior Superior Court Judge David Emerson ruled on Aug. 15 in a court order denying a stay of his previous order for the commission to act that the court can only compel the public body to act and cannot dictate the decision.
“That said, this is a situation in which the only authority of the county commission is to appoint the nominees submitted by the executive officer of the political party. The defendant board has been ordered to comply with that appointment,” Emerson said in his order.
Ivory said no one can compel an elected official to vote in a specific way.
“While I respect my colleagues and the legal requirements before us, I stand firm in my belief that Fulton County deserves better than what has been presented to us,” Ivory said.
Ellis argued that the nominees met the requirements to serve on the board of elections, which include being registered to vote and a Fulton County resident, and not serving in political office.
“I felt differently about individual nominees that have come before us on the Democratic side, but I’ve not gone out and personally slandered them, attacked them, and so forth. I hope you would vote to approve today so we can move on from this chapter,” Ellis said.
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