Georgia’s Fulton County Elections Director Richard Barron may keep his job after all.
The Board of Registration and Elections voted on Tuesday to fire Barron, who has held the post since 2013, after a turbulent 2020 general election and two U.S. Senate runoff contests, but on Wednesday, county commissioners failed to affirm a recommendation to terminate him, which stretches the debate into next month.
“Barron has received wide praise from Republicans and Democrats, for putting in place the most extensive expansion of voting- and voter-access in Georgia history during the November Presidential and January U.S. Senate Runoff elections,” Commissioner Khadijah Abdur-Rahman said in a statement.
Fulton County, the largest county in Georgia, containing most of Atlanta and a population of about 1 million people, was one of the primary focal points of election fraud claims made by former President Donald Trump and his allies, but multiple counts and audits found no widespread flaws in the contest.
The county made headlines during the June primary election, with reports of long lines, a COVID-19 outbreak among election workers, and problems with voting machines. Barron called the primary the “single worst day” of his career. Following the presidential contest, Barron dismissed allegations, including by Trump’s personal lawyer Rudy Giuliani, that officials seen in surveillance video from State Farm Arena in Atlanta used secret “suitcases” of fraudulent votes to ensure that Biden won the Peach State.
Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis is conducting a criminal inquiry into whether Trump and his allies broke state laws by trying to overturn Georgia’s election results.
FULTON COUNTY BOARD VOTES TO FIRE ELECTIONS DIRECTOR IN GEORGIA
After the Board of Registration and Elections voted 3-2 Tuesday to recommend the removal of Barron as Fulton’s elections director, the Board of Commissioners voted on two motions relevant to the matter on Wednesday. One motion was to approve the recommendation of the Election Board to terminate Barron, and a second to reject that recommendation. Both motions ended in a stalemate by a 3-3 vote.
North Fulton Republican Commissioner Bob Ellis, along with GOP commissioners Liz Hausmann and Lee Morris, voted to remove Barron from his director position.
“They’ve stated publicly various reasons why they think change is necessary,” Ellis said, referencing the Board of Registration and Elections. “Things have emanated out of a consent decree that the county is under, the monitoring report that’s come back from the monitors about the performance, things they’ve observed, they talk about health and safety issues, chain of control, custody issues.”
Ellis contended the Registration and Elections Board should have the final say in a director’s removal.
Nonpartisan monitor Carter Jones argued against the process in a report, saying, “Firing Rick Barron is not a shortcut to fixing the mismanagement inside Fulton’s elections department.”
Democrats, including Chairman Robb Pitts, and commissioners Marvin Arrington, and Abdur-Rahman, voted not to fire Barron.
“Republicans from the state and county level are mad at him because he was not going to do voter suppression, and he’s not going to allow the Republican Party to take over elections,” Abdur-Rahman said.
Vice Chairwoman Natalie Hall is the one commissioner who sat out during the vote, ultimately causing the decision to become deadlocked. Ellis noted Hall said she would sit out during the vote because she did not have enough information to make a decision yet.
The matter is expected to come before the Board of Commissioners again at their next meeting on March 3, but until then, there is no change in the current status of Barron’s job as director.
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The Washington Examiner reached out to Fulton County communications officials but has not received a response.
