Georgia Democrats are defying state law and a standing court order.

Like Nancy Pelosi, who refused to seat Reps. Jim Jordan and Jim Banks on the January 6th committee, Fulton County Democrats are refusing to seat two Republicans on the Fulton County Elections Board. This lawless action is in direct violation of a Fulton election ordinance:

Two members shall be appointed by the governing authority of Fulton County from nominations made by the chairperson of the county executive committee of the political party whose candidates received the second largest number of such votes [14-33].

Under this legal standard, the Republican Party is entitled to nominate two members to serve on the board. The two candidates, nominated by the GOP several months ago, are Julie Adams and Jason Frazier. They have yet to be seated.

This issue has been adjudicated in a courtroom, and the Democrats were found guilty of violating election law. On August 3, Superior Court Judge David Emerson ruled that Fulton County is required to seat the two Republican nominees. Because they refused, Judge Emerson ruled (August 27) that the Fulton County Board of Commissioners was in contempt of court, and was required to pay $10,000 per day until the two Republicans are seated. In the words of Judge Emerson, this matter is clear-cut:

I didn't see anywhere in that legislation that the commission was given veto power over the nominees. Is it in there, did I miss it?

The judge temporarily stayed the penalty because Democrats intend to file an appeal; however, that appeal will fail.

The Absurd Rationalization of the Democrats

Fulton County Democrats have justified their lawbreaking with this argument: Adams and Frazier are “election deniers.” Democrats are upset with nominee Julie Adams because she did not vote to certify the 2020 election when she previously was on the board. In the case of Jason Frazier, his sin was challenging (successfully) many ineligible voter registrations. There are two problems with the Democrat argument:

1. Being a so-called election denier, even if true, is totally irrelevant to the law. The GOP has a right to have its nominees seated.
2. Adams and Frazier were, in fact, not election deniers. Indeed, their criticisms were understated. In my opinion, the 2020 election should not have been certified, and the Fulton County administration should have been investigated for fraud.

An analysis of the facts shows that the Democrat obstructionists are simply “truth deniers.”

Joe Biden did not Win the 2020 Georgia Election

1. To this day, ultra blue Fulton Co. has provided zero support for 17,852 of its 2020 election ballots. Perhaps it can’t. Prominent Berkeley statistician Philip B. Stark examined Fulton Co. election records in connection with his testimony in a federal lawsuit. According to his sworn declaration (p. 105 of 209), “...of the 527,925 cast vote records: 17,852 image files are missing.”  Keep in mind that Biden won (supposedly) by less than 11,800 votes.
2. Between the 2016 and 2020 elections, Georgia experienced the sharpest decline in absentee ballot rejection rates of any state in the country. If the 2016 rejection rate had been applied to the 2020 absentee ballot rate, there would have been 78,000 fewer votes. Again, Biden’s “victory” margin was less than 11,800.
3. Now consider rejection rates at the county level. Fulton Co. is the largest and most Democrat county in the state. For some very strange reason, its rejection rate was only 1/7th as high as the rest of Georgia. As an experienced CPA and auditor, I performed a thorough statistical analysis of the probability of Fulton Co. being so much lower than the state as a whole, so much lower than other large counties with similar per capita earnings, and so much lower than other counties with similar demographics. No matter how I prepared the analysis, the statistical probability was less than ONE IN ONE BILLION.
4. About three years after the election we learned why the Fulton Co. ballot rejection rate was lower than that of the rest of the state: Signatures were never checked. In April, 2024, Mark Wingate, a member of the 2020 Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections, made the following statement under oath: I asked (Fulton Co. election personnel), ‘What did we do for signature verification?’ And the comment I got back frankly floored me, ‘We didn’t do any.’
5. Wingate also identified another major problem: “I and other Board members had requested that we obtain the chain of custody documentation from the department and none of that was ever delivered.” The lack of chain of custody might explain how 17,852 ballots magically appeared out of nowhere.
6. Other elements of this illegal election have been identified by VoterGA, an experienced nonprofit watchdog organization staffed with qualified data analysts. Some of those elements (just for Fulton County) are 380,458 missing original in-person ballot images and 512,743 missing SHA files needed to authenticate each ballot (and required by Georgia law). None of those allegations has been refuted.
7. Perhaps the biggest cause for concern is the unyielding refusal of Fulton Co. to permit access to the ballots. In December 2020, six witnesses independently testified that many of the absentee ballots appeared to be fake: The ballots were supposedly mailed but had none of the creases required in order for the ballots to fit into envelopes. Also, they were on different paper and/or they had suspicious ink that appeared to be toner. As a result, the head of VoterGA, Garland Favorito, filed a lawsuit to obtain ballot access. After nearly five years of litigation, the ballots are no longer under court seal and Favorito has a right to inspect the ballots via a standard open records request. Without explanation, however, Fulton Co. refuses to give that access.

Conclusion

The Democrat claim that they can’t comply with a court order to seat nominated Republicans because those Republicans are “election deniers” begs the question: What is an “election denier? A good answer was provided by Brigit Thorne, a surviving Republican member on the Fulton County Board of Commissioners. She said this to her Democrat colleagues (video at13:10):

What is an election denier? Election denier is anyone who wants integrity in our elections. By state law, we need to reconcile that the number of people voted equals the number of ballots cast. We do not obey that law.

Joe Fried is an Ohio-based CPA and the author of Debunked? An auditor reviews the 2020 election -- and the lessons learned. In that book, Joe argues that the 2020 election should not have been certified. In addition, Joe has assisted various attorneys representing January 6^th defendants. His totally free substack account is found at joefriedcpa.substack.com.

Image: Fulton County