A verbal skirmish over Fulton County’s elections management unfolded at the Georgia Capitol Wednesday, as a Republican Senator said the state should take over the county elections office and the county’s Democratic leader ridiculed the notion as “laughable.”
Sen. Greg Dolezal, R-Cumming, pointed to a recently unsealed FBI affidavit for the search warrant that led to the raid on a Fulton election facility last month. The document showed that the Fulton election in 2020 was a “mess,” he said.
“It’s past time for the state to take over Fulton County elections,” said Dolezal, who is running for lieutenant governor.
Fulton Commission Chairman Robb Pitts then came to the Gold Dome to hold his own news conference, telling reporters that numerous reviews and audits had given the county’s election operation “a clean bill of health.” He said the warrant affidavit was a “very weak, weak, weak” document.
“There’s no such thing as a perfect election,” Pitts said. “There’s always a possibility of human error. There’s always a possibility of mechanical failure. But there has not been any organized effort in Fulton County, Georgia to manipulate the outcome of any election.”
Pitts called the raid a “sinister plot” by the administration of President Donald Trump to disrupt upcoming elections. And he said the county was prepared to fight against it in court, adding that he had contacted other local leaders across the country to warn them.
“Fulton County is the poster child here,” Pitts said. “If they’re successful here in Fulton County, Georgia, they’re going to take this show on the road.”
Dolezal had pointed to statements in the affidavit that some ballots had been scanned twice while other ballot images were missing.
State election investigations have never found intentional fraud over the last five years, but Fulton has been cited for poor ballot management, disorganized processes and counting errors.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican running for governor, has repeatedly said Georgia’s elections are safe and secure.
