Fulton County judges are handling several lawsuits stemming from rules passed by a trio of State Election Board members loyal to Donald Trump. Jill Nolin/Georgia Recorder
A lawsuit filed by the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections seeks to prevent the State Election Board from appointing several election monitors for the Nov. 5 election.
In the lawsuit filed Tuesday, Fulton’s election board claims that the Georgia State Election Board is pressuring it to appoint multiple additional election monitors. The plaintiffs argue that the five-member state panel lacks the statutory authority to force the county to hire and pay for extra election monitors to add to the team it already appointed to oversee the 2024 election.
The lawsuit is one of several filed in recent weeks contesting the rules changes approved by three right-wing state election officials who support GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump.
On May 7, Fulton County was admonished by the panel that oversees how counties conduct elections and ordered a monitor for this year’s campaigns. The state board voted to reprimand Fulton and appoint an independent monitor for the 2024 election,accusing county officials of violating state law while conducting a recount of the 2020 presidential election.
President Joe Biden’s narrow 2020 election in Georgia was confirmed by multiple recounts and audits and withstood many court challenges.
Georgia secretary of state officials determined mistakes by county election workers would not have changed the outcome of the 2020 election but were unable to determine how many invalid ballots were included in the results used to certify the election.
According to the lawsuit, the State Election Board is pushing to force the Fulton election board to “capitulate” to the appointment of several additional state-appointed election monitors. A flurry of last-minute efforts are being made to drastically affect Nov. 5 general elections, according to the plaintiffs’ complaint.
The lawsuit alleges that Republican State Election Board Member Janice Johnston warned in October that the state board would have no choice but to “disavow” the county if it refused to hire additional election monitors.
Johnston emailed the Fulton election board chairman on Oct. 1 calling for the board to accept eight additional monitors.
Johnston and her two allies suggest that Fulton add Heather Honey, who previously worked with the Cyber Ninjas, a company that employed questionable audit practices of 2020 election results in Arizona. They also recommended Frank Ryan, who refused to certify election results in the past. Honey and Ryan distrust the results of the 2020 election
The Georgia Election Board voted Tuesday to reprimand Fulton County and appoint an independent monitor for the 2024 election for violating state law while conducting a recount of the 2020 presidential election. Democrat Joe Biden narrowly defeated GOP nominee Donald Trump by nearly 12,000 votes in Georgia for the 2020 presidential race.
In 2023, a Georgia election board with several different members rejected a state takeover of Fulton ballot counting following a lengthy performance review after the tumultuous 2020 presidential election spurred conspiracy theories and brought national attention to Georgia’s most populated county.
The independent panel’s report did not find any proof of election workers engaging in intentional misconduct but noted Fulton elections new leadership role is now resolving past problems with managerial oversight, disorganization and mistakes in recounting ballots.
Election Board ethics complaint dismissed
A Fulton County judge Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit filed by several Democratic public officials against Gov. Brian Kemp over his refusal to order ethics hearings for three Republican State Election Board members.
One of the state lawmakers behind the lawsuit vowed to appeal after the dismissal.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge Ural Glanville said Wednesday that the lawsuit filed by three Democratic elected officials was insufficient to advance the case. Glaville said an official investigation into the State Election Board’s actions should have been conducted before the lawsuit was filed in September against GOP Gov. Brian Kemp.
In September, Democratic officials sued to remove the three Trump loyalists on the State Election Board for revising election rules and holding an illegal meeting. The board also includes a Democrat and chairman who have voted against several rules supported by the Trump loyalists.
In its lawsuit, the plaintiffs asked the Fulton court to order Kemp to hold a hearing to determine if three board members singled out for praise by Trump at an Atlanta rally violated ethics laws through pushing through new rules that undermine public trust prior to the Nov. 5 election.
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