​Fulton County sues State Election Board over election monitors

ATLANTA, Ga. (WJBF) – With less than one month until election day, new controversy is boiling up between Georgia’s most populated county, Fulton County, and the State Election Board.

Fulton County has about 11% of the state’s voting electorate, including the city of metro Atlanta, and is now filing a lawsuit against the state election board. The issue stems around election monitors after issues from the 2020 elections.

“A lot of this just paranoia from the 2020 elections and delay tactics,” said Tori McFarland of the New Georgia Project.

The State Election Board says it has an alternate group of monitors including people who questioned the accuracy of the 2020 results in Fulton County.

“The State Election Board wants more insight into the election monitoring where Fulton County says its not your decision. We are the ones who are paying for it and are agreeing to it and what not,” said Travis Doss, president of the Georgia Association of Voter Registration.

“The State Election Board wants to meet again or meet twice before the elections and it will be interesting to see what may happen as they try to meet this close to the election,” said Doss.

A list of eight potential monitors were sent by the board, but Fulton County says that’s not in their authority especially since they are paying for monitors.

“One important thing is these do not impact your right to vote. We are going to work on the back end to make sure that after the election process that the law is followed,” said McFarland

Georgia’s Secretary of State and the Attorney General of Georgia say the board is overstepping its authority when it comes to these recent rulings, including recounting and recertifying elections, and to focus on voter concerns instead.

The State Elections Board’s role is to address complaints from voters, things like missing absentee ballots, and they can either address it, dismiss it or send it to the AG’s office for further investigation.

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