Georgia
Appeals court rules Fulton County can reject GOP election board picks
ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia appeals court ruled on Friday that the state’s largest county doesn’t have to appoint two Republican nominees to the county election board, a decision that could tamp down GOP challenges to how elections are administered in predominantly Democratic areas.
The state Court of Appeals found that while elected leaders of Fulton County must appoint two county election board members from nominees provided by the county Republican Party, county commissioners have the freedom to reject names and ask for other choices.
The Democratic majority on the Fulton County Commission voted last year to reject Republican nominees Julie Adams and Jason Frazier, saying their actions made them unsuitable to serve. The county Republican Party sued, and a judge ordered the commissioners to vote to approve the Adams and Frazier, finding the board in contempt after they refused. Friday’s ruling means the county won’t have to pay a contempt fine of $10,000 a day that had been stayed pending appeal.
In a unanimous opinion by a three-judge panel, Presiding Judge Anne Barnes wrote that commissioners are required to choose from a list of Republican nominees, but “were acting within their own lawful and discretionary authority when they declined to seat” the party’s choices. She wrote that the solution is for the Republican Party to submit new nominees.
Republicans could appeal to the state Supreme Court, but justices don’t have to take the case. A lawyer for the county Republican Party didn’t immediately respond to an email asking if an appeal is planned.
The five-person county election board includes a chair selected by commissioners and two nominees each from the county Republican and Democratic parties who are then appointed by the commissioners. To be eligible, nominees must live in Fulton County, be registered to vote and cannot hold or be candidates for public office.
Adams has served on the election board since February 2024. She abstained from certifying primary election results last year and unsuccessfully sued the election board seeking a ruling saying county officials can refuse to certify elections. Frazier has formally challenged the eligibility of thousands of Fulton County voters. Both are important figures in a Republican coalition that continues to challenge the validity of Donald Trump’s 2020 loss in Georgia and press for changes in how elections are conducted.
Adams’ term expired in June. But she remains on the election board until she or a replacement is appointed to fill her seat. The other Republican seat remains vacant.
Frazier said the ruling gives too much latitude for Democratic commissioners to force Republicans to appoint nominees that Democrats like.
Fulton County Commissioner Dana Barrett, a Democrat who cites her vote against seating Adams and Frazier in her run for Georgia secretary of state this year, hailed the ruling against seating the “MAGA extremists.”
“The contempt charges, the fines, the threats of jail time — all overturned by today’s ruling,” Barrett said in a statement. “This is a huge win for Georgia voters and a win for free, fair, and secure elections.”
Most election boards across Georgia are appointed in the same way as Fulton County, and Friday’s ruling could let county commissions broadly reject political party nominees they disagree with. In metro Atlanta, that could mean Democratic county commissioners will be able to reject Republican activists who contend Democratic counties aren’t conducting elections properly, but it could also diminish Democrats’ ability to be represented on election boards in Republican areas of the state.
A 2018 state Supreme Court ruling had already weakened the ability of parties to automatically place nominees on election boards.
In 2024, Cherokee County, a heavily Republican Atlanta suburb, considered appointing only one Democrat to the county’s five-member election board. Rejecting that, commissioners then chose a Democrat who was unknown to county Democratic Party leaders, instead of the party’s nominee.
Georgia
Judge grants $1 murder bond for woman accused of using pills to induce abortion
KINGSLAND, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia judge granted a bond of just $1 for a murder charge faced by a woman accused by police of taking pills to induce an illegal abortion.
“I think that charge is extremely problematic,” Superior Court Judge Steven Blackerby said Monday during a bond hearing for Alexia Moore, according to The New York Times. “That is going to be a hard charge to convict upon.”
Blackerby set a total $2,001 bond for Moore, who spent nearly three weeks jailed in coastal Camden County. In addition to $1 for the murder charge, the judge ordered $1,000 bond amounts for each of two drug charges Moore faces.
Local police took the 31-year-old Moore into custody March 4 using an arrest warrant with language that echoes a Georgia law banning abortions after embryonic cardiac activity can be detected. That’s generally at about six weeks’ gestation – before many women know they’re pregnant.
Moore’s case is one of the first in Georgia of a woman being charged for terminating a pregnancy since the law was adopted in 2019.
The judge’s $1 bond raises questions about how a murder case against Moore might proceed.
District Attorney Keith Higgins of the Brunswick Judicial Circuit didn’t oppose the bond amount in court Monday and told the judge that police didn’t consult his office before they charged Moore, according to reports by The New York Times and the Georgia news website The Current.
In order to send Moore to trial for murder, Higgins’ office would first need to obtain an indictment from a grand jury. A person who answered the phone at Higgins’ office Tuesday said he does not comment on pending cases.
Online jail records show that Moore posted bond and was released Monday. She is being represented by attorneys from the Georgia Public Defender Council, which applauded the judge’s decision.
Court records say Moore arrived at a hospital Dec. 30 complaining of abdominal pain. She told medical workers that she had taken misoprostol, a drug used in medication abortions, and the opioid painkiller oxycodone, according to an arrest warrant obtained by police in Kingsland, about 100 miles south of Savannah.
The fetus survived for about an hour after being delivered at the hospital, the warrant says.
The arrest warrant charging Moore says police obtained medical records estimating that Moore had been pregnant for 22 to 24 weeks. The warrant also cited “the medical staff’s knowledge that the baby had a beating heart and was struggling to breathe.”
Appeals court rules Fulton County can reject GOP election board picks
ATLANTA (AP) — A Georgia appeals court ruled on Friday that the state’s largest county doesn’t have to appoint two Republican nominees to the county election board, a decision that could tamp down GOP challenges to how elections are administered in predominantly Democratic areas.
The state Court of Appeals found that while elected leaders of Fulton County must appoint two county election board members from nominees provided by the county Republican Party, county commissioners have the freedom to reject names and ask for other choices.
The Democratic majority on the Fulton County Commission voted last year to reject Republican nominees Julie Adams and Jason Frazier, saying their actions made them unsuitable to serve. The county Republican Party sued, and a judge ordered the commissioners to vote to approve the Adams and Frazier, finding the board in contempt after they refused. Friday’s ruling means the county won’t have to pay a contempt fine of $10,000 a day that had been stayed pending appeal.
In a unanimous opinion by a three-judge panel, Presiding Judge Anne Barnes wrote that commissioners are required to choose from a list of Republican nominees, but “were acting within their own lawful and discretionary authority when they declined to seat” the party’s choices. She wrote that the solution is for the Republican Party to submit new nominees.
Republicans could appeal to the state Supreme Court, but justices don’t have to take the case. A lawyer for the county Republican Party didn’t immediately respond to an email asking if an appeal is planned.
The five-person county election board includes a chair selected by commissioners and two nominees each from the county Republican and Democratic parties who are then appointed by the commissioners. To be eligible, nominees must live in Fulton County, be registered to vote and cannot hold or be candidates for public office.
Adams has served on the election board since February 2024. She abstained from certifying primary election results last year and unsuccessfully sued the election board seeking a ruling saying county officials can refuse to certify elections. Frazier has formally challenged the eligibility of thousands of Fulton County voters. Both are important figures in a Republican coalition that continues to challenge the validity of Donald Trump’s 2020 loss in Georgia and press for changes in how elections are conducted.
Adams’ term expired in June. But she remains on the election board until she or a replacement is appointed to fill her seat. The other Republican seat remains vacant.
Frazier said the ruling gives too much latitude for Democratic commissioners to force Republicans to appoint nominees that Democrats like.
Fulton County Commissioner Dana Barrett, a Democrat who cites her vote against seating Adams and Frazier in her run for Georgia secretary of state this year, hailed the ruling against seating the “MAGA extremists.”
“The contempt charges, the fines, the threats of jail time — all overturned by today’s ruling,” Barrett said in a statement. “This is a huge win for Georgia voters and a win for free, fair, and secure elections.”
Most election boards across Georgia are appointed in the same way as Fulton County, and Friday’s ruling could let county commissions broadly reject political party nominees they disagree with. In metro Atlanta, that could mean Democratic county commissioners will be able to reject Republican activists who contend Democratic counties aren’t conducting elections properly, but it could also diminish Democrats’ ability to be represented on election boards in Republican areas of the state.
A 2018 state Supreme Court ruling had already weakened the ability of parties to automatically place nominees on election boards.
In 2024, Cherokee County, a heavily Republican Atlanta suburb, considered appointing only one Democrat to the county’s five-member election board. Rejecting that, commissioners then chose a Democrat who was unknown to county Democratic Party leaders, instead of the party’s nominee.
Georgia
Judge grants $1 murder bond for woman accused of using pills to induce abortion
KINGSLAND, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia judge granted a bond of just $1 for a murder charge faced by a woman accused by police of taking pills to induce an illegal abortion.
“I think that charge is extremely problematic,” Superior Court Judge Steven Blackerby said Monday during a bond hearing for Alexia Moore, according to The New York Times. “That is going to be a hard charge to convict upon.”
Blackerby set a total $2,001 bond for Moore, who spent nearly three weeks jailed in coastal Camden County. In addition to $1 for the murder charge, the judge ordered $1,000 bond amounts for each of two drug charges Moore faces.
Local police took the 31-year-old Moore into custody March 4 using an arrest warrant with language that echoes a Georgia law banning abortions after embryonic cardiac activity can be detected. That’s generally at about six weeks’ gestation – before many women know they’re pregnant.
Moore’s case is one of the first in Georgia of a woman being charged for terminating a pregnancy since the law was adopted in 2019.
The judge’s $1 bond raises questions about how a murder case against Moore might proceed.
District Attorney Keith Higgins of the Brunswick Judicial Circuit didn’t oppose the bond amount in court Monday and told the judge that police didn’t consult his office before they charged Moore, according to reports by The New York Times and the Georgia news website The Current.
In order to send Moore to trial for murder, Higgins’ office would first need to obtain an indictment from a grand jury. A person who answered the phone at Higgins’ office Tuesday said he does not comment on pending cases.
Online jail records show that Moore posted bond and was released Monday. She is being represented by attorneys from the Georgia Public Defender Council, which applauded the judge’s decision.
Court records say Moore arrived at a hospital Dec. 30 complaining of abdominal pain. She told medical workers that she had taken misoprostol, a drug used in medication abortions, and the opioid painkiller oxycodone, according to an arrest warrant obtained by police in Kingsland, about 100 miles south of Savannah.
The fetus survived for about an hour after being delivered at the hospital, the warrant says.
The arrest warrant charging Moore says police obtained medical records estimating that Moore had been pregnant for 22 to 24 weeks. The warrant also cited “the medical staff’s knowledge that the baby had a beating heart and was struggling to breathe.”
