Fulton County Faces $10K Fine: Democrat Stubbornness in Spotlight
A startling ruling issued this Wednesday by Superior Court Judge David Emerson, has imposed a $10,000 daily fine on Georgia’s most crowded county government. The fine will continue until the county administration inserts two Republican nominees into its election board. Clearly, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners has shown audacity by not adhering to the Judge’s previous order to include the Republican nominees.
In Emerson’s recent written mandate, he held the board of commissioners in civil contempt, imposing the hefty $10,000 daily fine commencing from noon of the upcoming Friday. The penalty is supposed to be paid daily to the state. The end of this rigmarole only in sight once the Commission appoints the Republican party’s executive officer’s nominees.
The spiteful behavior of the Fulton County Board of Commissioners has been highlighted in the judge’s order, accusing it of being ‘stubbornly litigious and acted in bad faith’, resulting in the order to cover the county’s Republican Party’s legal expenses. Such a legal dispute involving the election board of Fulton county illuminates the intense scrutiny that Georgia’s elections have been under.
Interestingly, former President Donald Trump had secured a victory in this swing state after he narrowly lost four years prior. However, he made baseless allegations of election fraud being the reason behind his defeat in Georgia during the 2020 elections against Democrat Joe Biden. Fulton County, predominantly Democratic and encompassing most of Atlanta city, became the center of these unproven allegations.
The Fulton county’s election board comprises of five members, with the Board of Commissioners nominating the chairperson and the county’s Republican and Democratic parties each putting forth two delegates to be nominated by the commissioners. To be considered as a nominee, they’re required to be Fulton County residents, registered voters and not holding any public office.
The Democratic majority in the Board of Commissioners in May had blatantly disapproved the appointments of the Republican nominees, Julie Adams and Jason Frazier, attributing it to their past actions that had allegedly made them undesirable nominees. Yet Adams had been serving on the election board since February 2024. She abstained from certifying the primary election results the prior year and unsuccessfully took the election board to court, seeking a declaration that empowers county officials to refuse to certify elections.
Jason Frazier, one of the nominees, has been proactive previously, making formal objections on the eligibility of several of Fulton County’s voters. Needless to say, the judge agreed with the Republican Party. ‘The Board shall appoint the two members as nominated by the county executive committee chairperson. Those nominees are Jason Frazier and Julie Adams,’ Emerson had written in an Aug. 4 order.
The commissioners, defying Emerson’s initial ruling, convened more than once and did not move to elect Adams and Frazier to the election board, leading the Republican Party to request Emerson to hold the commissioners in contempt. Obstacles to the appointment of Republican nominees to the election board seem to be part of a larger trend, echoing clashes from two years prior.
Democrats on the Board of Commissioners had thwarted Frazier’s appointment to the county election board twice before, using the same defense as they are now. Although they acknowledge the law instructs they ‘shall’ appoint two nominees submitted by each party, they claim they still have some degree of discretion. Interestingly, the county Republican Party had eventually withdrawn the 2023 lawsuit, allowing for Adams’ appointment to the seat.