Georgia Supreme Court skeptical of GOP bid to force election deniers onto Fulton County board

The Georgia Supreme Court appeared skeptical of a Republican lawsuit seeking to force two noted election deniers onto the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections during oral arguments in the case Wednesday.

Last year, the county’s Board of Commissioners voted 5-2 to reject Jason Frazier and Julie Adams, two Republican nominees who are longstanding election deniers. In response, the Fulton County Republican Party sued, arguing the board had violated state law by rejecting their nominations.

During Wednesday’s hearing, Don Samuel, the Board of Commissioners’ attorney, argued that it did not violate state law when it refused to appoint Frazier and Adams because the board has the discretion to accept or reject nominees as it sees fit. 

“You have to submit nominees that are going to be acceptable,” Samuel said. 

In response, Justin Gunter, the GOP’s lawyer, argued that “no constitutional provision creates a constitutional right to discretion in appointments, and there is no degree of required discretion that renders an act requiring appointments constitutional.”

Georgia Supreme Court Chief Justice Nels S.D. Peterson appeared to side with Samuel’s argument that the board had every right to refuse to appoint Adams and Frazier.

“It does seem to me that you probably have the better of the legal argument,” Peterson said. “This court tends to be a place where it’s good to have the better legal argument.”

The hearing is the latest stage in a long-running legal battle. 

Previously, a lower court sided with the Republican plaintiffs and ordered the Board of Commissioners to make the appointments. When the board refused, Republicans asked the court to imprison the commissioners. Instead, the trial court fined the board $10,000 a day until it appointed Adams and Frazier. 

The board appealed that ruling. An appeals panel then reversed the trial court’s ruling, concluding that the board did not have to appoint Adams and Frazier. The GOP then turned to the state’s highest court. 

In rejecting Frazier and Adams, the Fulton County commissioners concluded they both had a long history of behavior related to election denial that made them unfit to serve. 

In 2024, during her previous stint on the Board of Registration and Elections, Adams refused to certify the county’s primary election results based on unspecified “discrepancies.” She also has strong ties to prominent anti-voting organizations, such as the Election Integrity Network led by lawyer Cleta Mitchell.

Frazier, meanwhile, sued Fulton County in 2024, falsely alleging that it failed to properly maintain voter rolls. The suit was quickly dismissed, but he’s since used the debunked claims from the case to push many anti-voting conspiracy theories about Georgia’s election.

Earlier this year, the Georgia State Election Board appointed Frazier as an investigator, which set off alarm bells for voting rights advocates and state Democrats. 

“The board’s hiring of an anti-voting extremist with a clear bias against county elections officials as an investigator not only eliminates any of their remaining credibility, it puts counties and voters at risk of vindictive actions and politically motivated investigations,” All Voting Is Local Georgia State Director Kristin Nabers said in a statement at the time.