Fulton County voted on Tuesday to fire its elections director after a tumultuous 2020 presidential election and two Senate runoff contests.
The Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections voted 3-2 on Tuesday in favor of firing Richard Barron, who has held the post since 2013, despite pleas from the election chief’s staff, who wrote a letter in support of their boss, according to WABE, Atlanta’s local NPR affiliate.
“The person who is responsible for our success, the County’s success amid all of this, is current Director Richard Barron who has shown his ability to guide, motivate, steer and maintain the course of integrity, honesty, and fairness,” the staff wrote in a letter to the board.
Jessica Corbitt, a county spokeswoman, said the acting county attorney is reviewing whether Fulton County commissioners would need to ratify the elections board’s choice to fire Barron, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Fulton County is the largest county in Georgia, containing most of Atlanta and a population of about 1 million people. It was also a focus of election fraud claims by former President Donald Trump and his allies following President Biden’s victory in the historically red state. Multiple counts and audits turned up no widespread discrepancies in the contest.
Aaron Johnson, a Democratic appointee to the board, said removing Barron leaves the elections department in an unfortunate situation, adding that the move to terminate Barron will “cause chaos.”
Kathleen Ruth, a Republican, supported the move to fire Barron, citing the need for new leadership after last year’s contentious presidential election. “This is not political. This is a bipartisan vote,” Ruth said. “The department needs new leadership that can take Fulton to the next level, modernizing the elections process, making the county’s elections system more accurate and cost-effective and efficient.”
Vernetta Keith Nuriddin, the other Democrat on the board, sided with her GOP colleagues in voting to fire Barron. Nuriddin said she was happy with Barron’s decision to expand mail-in voting but felt there were too many problems in elections in recent years that could not be overlooked.
“My decision was not based on 2020′s election, but 2017, 2018,” Nuriddin said. “We have just consistent, continual issues around the absentee ballot process.”
The county made headlines during the June primary, 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 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.
