The law also empowers the State Election Board to replace a county’s election board after conducting a performance review or an investigation and to install a temporary administrator with wide authority to oversee election administration and vote counting.
Fulton County’s Chairman Robb Pitts, a Democrat, vowed to fight what he called the “first official step” in a “hostile takeover” of the county’s elections. Election operations in the county, which includes swaths of Atlanta, have been under intense scrutiny for years. Officials oversaw a June 2020 primary plagued by long voting lines and complaints that voters had failed to receive their absentee ballots by mail. Subsequent elections, including the January 2021 Senate runoff elections, however, appeared to operate more smoothly.
In Friday’s letter, Jones and other members of the Georgia House who asked for the performance review said they recognized it “may later become the basis for removal of one of more of the local elections officials by the State Elections Board, but believe this is a critically important step.”
'GOP Takeover' = voter suppression