ATLANTA (AP) — A judge has put on hold his ruling ordering the government of Georgia's most populous county to pay $10,000 a day until it appoints two Republican nominees to its election board.
Superior Court Judge David Emerson on Wednesday held the Fulton County Board of Commissioners in contempt after finding they hadn't complied with his earlier order to appoint the nominees. But since the commissioners informed him that they intend to appeal his contempt order, the law requires him to pause his ruling, he wrote in an order late Thursday.
Democrats on the Board of Commissioners voted in May and again last week not to approve the appointments of Republican nominees Julie Adams and Jason Frazier, saying their past actions made them unsuitable nominees for the county election board. The county Republican Party then sued, seeking to force the appointments.
Adams has served on the election board since February 2024. She abstained from certifying primary election results last year and unsuccessfully sued the election board seeking a ruling saying county officials can refuse to certify elections. Frazier has formally challenged the eligibility of thousands of Fulton County voters.
The county’s election board is composed of five members. The Board of Commissioners selects the chair, and the county Republican and Democratic parties each nominate two people to be appointed by the commissioners. Nominees must live in Fulton County, be registered to vote and cannot hold public office.
Emerson earlier this month ruled that the law does not give commissioners the discretion to reject qualified nominees proposed by political parties and ordered the commissioners to appoint the nominees.
The Democratic commissioners maintain that while they are required to appoint nominees from each party, they are not required to simply rubber stamp any nominee that is put forth. They are also appealing Emerson's initial ruling ordering them to make the appointments.
The commissioners have met more than once since Emerson's earlier ruling without voting to appoint Adams and Frazier to the election board, and the Republican Party asked Emerson to hold them in contempt.
Elections in Fulton County had a yearslong history of problems, including long lines to vote and delays in reporting results. A particularly troubled primary in 2020 resulted in the appointment of an independent monitor to observe the general election that year as part of a consent agreement between the county and the State Election Board. The monitor said the county’s elections were badly managed but he found no evidence of fraud. Another monitoring team appointed to observe last year’s general election said it was “organized and orderly.”
President Donald Trump and his supporters zeroed in on Fulton County in the wake of the 2020 general election, claiming without proof that election fraud had cost him victory in Georgia. Local, state and federal officials have repeatedly said there’s no evidence that fraud affected the outcome of that election, but conspiracy theories continued to circulate.
