ATLANTA — The chairman of the Georgia Republican Party has called on the state party's first vice chairman to resign after a judge found he'd illegally registered to vote and voted nine times in violation of state law while on probation in 2008 and 2010.
A state administrative judge returned the ruling against the first vice chairman, Brian Pritchard, last week. He was fined $5,000 and publicly reprimanded over the case, which involved him voting while on probation over a conviction in Pennsylvania in 1996.
"Last night during a meeting of our State Executive Committee I called upon our First Vice Chairman to resign. Today I am making that call public," Georgia GOP Chairman Josh McKoon posted on X on Wednesday morning. "...I ran on two campaign commitments — electing our Republican nominee for President and ending the prosecutorial 'witch hunt' against our Republican Presidential Electors. The judicial finding that our First Vice Chairman registered to vote illegally and voted illegally nine times makes it harder to accomplish both of these goals."
According to the ruling, Pritchard maintained in a hearing that he wasn't aware he was still on probation from a 1996 Pennsylvania case when he voted four times in 2008 and five times in 2010 before his probation term ceased in 2011.
But the administrative judge, Judge Lisa Boggs, wrote that "the Court does not find Respondent's (Pritchard's) explanations credible or convincing."
11Alive request earlier this week to the Georgia GOP for comment went unreturned. The State Election Board brought the case.
More on the case
According to a copy of the administrative ruling, the heart of the issue was forgery and theft convictions for Pritchard over $38,000 deposited into his account for a construction contract in 1996.
He was ultimately convicted in that case and sentenced to three years' probation. However it was extended another three years in 1999, according to the judge's findings, two more years when that period ended in 2002, and a further seven years when that period ended in 2004.
Pritchard stated he believed the case was essentially settled after his first return to court in 1999. He said in the hearing he didn't appear in court in Pennsylvania on either of the subsequent two occasions, 2002 or 2004, and didn't have legal counsel in either proceeding.
However, Judge Boggs noted that Pennsylvania court records indicated he did in fact appear for those proceedings.
Pritchard also argued he had not entered a guilty plea, but a plea of no contest in 1996, that his criminal conviction had in fact been adjudicated as a civil judgment, and that the Pennsylvania court "unlawfully issued orders extending his probation." He also referred to his 2017 restoration of rights, such as gun possession, by the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles that listed his Pennsylvania case as "closed" in 1999. . Judge Boggs found all of this either contradicted by Pennsylvania court records or otherwise insufficient.
The order states:
Should this Court accept the Respondent’s explanations that he genuinely believed his felony sentence had resolved as early as 1996 or 1999, it would have to discount such facts as (i) the Respondent conceding he was in court in March 1999, which resulted in an order revoking his probation, reinstating a three-year probation sentence, and ordering restitution payments; and (ii) the Allegheny court documenting that he was present in court in both 2002 and 2004, with the latter proceeding leading to a seven-year extension of his probation, through at least April 2011. To accept the Respondents’ explanation that he had no knowledge of the court proceedings and subsequent orders from 2002 and 2004, this court would have to disregard the Allegheny court’s certified records indicating that the Respondent did appear. To accept the Respondent’s explanation that he believed his criminal sentence had been converted to a civil judgment, the Court would need to overlook the fact that none of the certified orders or records from the Allegheny court mention such a conversion.
According to the court order, Pritchard voted while on probation for the Pennsylvania case on the following dates and in the following elections:
- July 15, 2008; Georgia general primary
- August 5, 2008; Georgia general primary runoff
- November 4, 2008; Georgia general election
- December 2, 2008; Georgia general election runoff
- May 11, 2010; special election
- June 8, 2010; special election
- July 20, 2010; Georgia general primary
- August 10, 2010; Georgia general primary
- November 2, 2010; Georgia general election
He was registered in Gilmer County. A complaint was also filed with that county's Board of Elections regarding Pritchard in 2014, alleging he'd voted while still serving the Pennsylvania sentence, and in May 2014 he submitted a handwritten request to Gilmer election officials to be removed from the voter rolls. According to the court order, he said in the hearing he did that "because I did not want to be doing something unbeknownst to me that could -- could be considered wrong."
As part of the order, Pritchard was ordered to cease and desist from committing further Georgia election violations and ordered to pay a civil penalty of $5,000 to the State Election Board -- $500 for registering to vote in the first place in 2008 when he moved to Georgia, and another $500 for each of the nine voting violations -- as well as pay the Board $375.14 in investigative costs.
He is also to be publicly reprimanded as part of the order.
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