FULTON COUNTY, Ga. — In Fulton County, Republicans have chosen a man to serve on the county election board who has challenged thousands of voter registrations in the county.
The nominee is a man who has been a thorn in the backside of the Fulton election commission. Now he is poised to become a member.
In March, Jason Frazier told the Fulton election board he had found numerous invalid voter registrations.
"I have identified 20,000 duplicate registrations," he told the board with more than a hint of irritation. The board gave it right back to him.
"Yes, I showed you duplicate registrations that led to double voting. Don’t give me that look, OK?" the board asked as Frazier fumed from the podium.
Frazier said the county election division should have fixed the inaccuracies internally. Instead, it sent letters to the voters requiring them to prove their registrations were valid. One of them was Lakendra Graham, who attended the same March meeting.
She said she lived on Confederate Avenue in Atlanta, the name of which the city changed with great fanfare to United Avenue in 2019. It was not her fault, she told the board in March.
"My rights were challenged. I’ve been staying at the same address since 2011," she told the board, also with a hint of irritation. "It’s a waste of my time. Because I’m here. I have other things to do. I have a job."
Frazier told the board it’s the county’s fault that Graham and others had to defend their voting status. Now Frazier is one of two Republican nominees to serve on the election board.
"We’ve got to do something better, guys. This is embarrassing," Frazier said, admonishing the board at the conclusion of his remarks.
Frazier has numerous backers among Republicans who believe it’s too easy to cast fraudulent ballots and that Fulton needs more scrutiny. In a Democratic majority county, he also has critics.
"The GOP is nominating... someone who is well known for being a voter suppressor, for working to challenge many voters over and over again -- the same people," Stephanie Ali of the New Georgia Project Action Fund told the Fulton County Board of Commissioners May 17. "That person is going to be nominated for the board itself."
The rules require the election board to have two members chosen by the county Republican party, plus two by the Democrats.
The seat the GOP wants for Frazier becomes vacant July 1. The board could act on his nomination next week.