Last week, a judge ordered the Fulton County Board of Commissioners to seat two Republican Party nominees: Jason Frazier and Julie Adams. The two were nominated in May but have yet to be seated.
Two of the Democrat members, Dana Barrett and Mo Ivory, were able to thwart Commissioner Bridget Thorne’s motion to confirm the two Republican appointees. Because of the absence of three other members on the seven-member board, the motion was blocked in a 2-2 vote.
On August 4th, Judge David Emerson ordered the two nominees be confirmed as per Georgia law, which states that the the board’s members “shall be appointed” by the “chairperson of the county executive committee of the political party” of whichever party has the “largest number of votes in this state for members of the General Assembly”.
In that order, Judge Emerson stated, “The respondent Board of Commissioners (BOC) contends the “shall” is not mandatory, but rather “directory”, and that the county commissioners can exercise discretion to reject any nominee for any reason.”
The commissioners filed a request to reconsider, which was denied. So they filed an emergency motion with the Georgia Supreme Court, who moved the docket to the Georgia Court of Appeals. The appeals court denied the motion as well.
Today, at 9am, a hearing will take place regarding the two members who voted against the appointments, and a third who was not present but is also refusing to appoint the two despite the Court’s orders.
Commissioners Dana Barrett, Mo Ivory, and Marvin Harrington still refuse to vote for the appointments.
Barrett, who has served on the board since November 2022, took to Instagram to post a video calling Frazier and Adams, the Republican nominees, “election deniers” and acknowledging that the Court has ruled against her and her colleagues. “Our elections are under attack,” she said, before invoking Texas and President Trump’s movement to eliminate universal mail-in balloting and untrustworthy black-box voting machines.
1 of 2 Clips:
Three Fulton County Board of Commissioners REFUSE to vote to appoint two lawfully nominated Republican members, calling them “election deniers”.
A Superior Court Judge has ruled, twice, that they must be seated citing Georgia Law that says they “shall be… pic.twitter.com/ltoR7V0vb5
— CannCon (@CannConActual) August 27, 2025
Commissioner Mo Ivory also posted her thoughts to Instagram, saying she’s “standing on [her] principles, whether the millage rate or about MAGA Republicans…nobody can force me to vote “yes” on something that I have the discretion to use my research…to make a decision.”
“It’s dangerous to start opening the door to judges telling elected officials how they should vote,” she continued. Ironically, the very board she is obligated by law to appoint has been told that it’s members’ votes to certify an election are ceremonial.
Commissioner Bridget Thorne, a seasoned poll manager for almost a decade before her election to the BOC, responded to the partisan members during last week’s vote:
Commissioner @1fultonthorne responds with the fire, mentioning one of the GOP board members being denied was sued because she refused to certify an election without doing her due diligence in the May 2024 primary.
From Marc Elias’s own Democracy Docket:
“Julie Adams, who… https://t.co/eiI2ZQyJnd pic.twitter.com/94otzpd6xU
— CannCon (@CannConActual) August 27, 2025
Marc Elias’s own Democracy Docket notes that Adams is being labeled an election denier because she refused to vote to certify a Georgia primary election in May 2024 because she felt she was not provided enough information to ensure the election was legitimately run:
“Julie Adams, who currently serves on the Fulton County Board of Elections and Registration, was at the center of May 2024 controversy when she refused to certify the county’s primary election results. Adams, a prominent election denier with ties to the far-right Election Integrity Network (EIN), refused to certify her county’s primary election because she claimed she didn’t have access to all information about the voting process in order to verify the results. “
This isn’t a new theme in Fulton County.
In the 2020 Presidential Election, Mark Wingate, then a member of the same Fulton County Board of Elections, was denied chain of custody documents from the election before certifying the election.
Fulton Co not only wouldn’t provide chain of custody documents to citizens for transparency, but they WOULDNT PROVIDE IT TO THEIR OWN CERTIFYING BOARD.
Like I said months ago: Fani is ABSOLUTELY prosecuting the wrong people on the wrong side of this.
Fulton County was flat… https://t.co/fCmeYSNw42 pic.twitter.com/EKrniYB5f8
— CannCon (@CannConActual) April 2, 2024
Worse yet, Wingate was also told the county elections department was unable to operate their new BlueCrest sorter machines. They were intended to be used for automatic signature verification given the influx of mail-in ballots. When he inquired as to how to county handled signature verification then, he was told: “We didn’t do any”.
THERE IT IS.
Testimony today, under oath, from Fulton County Registrations and Elections Board Member Mark Wingate.
Fani Willis now KNOWS that NO signature verification was done in Fulton. That 147,000 ballots that, BY LAW, are invalid.
This influence NOT JUST THE… pic.twitter.com/4J8KwAVi8V
— CannCon (@CannConActual) April 2, 2024
