Fulton County officials have announced its elections board will hold a previously unscheduled meeting Tuesday solely to discuss personnel matters.
The board will convene the 10 a.m. meeting and then immediately enter a closed-door executive session to talk personnel, according a news release from Fulton external affairs staff. “The Board plans to discuss no elections business or hear public comments during this time,” per the announcement.
There’s something else unusual about this meeting. The elections board typically meets for a couple hours at most inside assembly hall starting at 10 a.m. But Tuesday’s proceedings will last all day and be held in two sections.
Both phases, per the news release, will be hosted within the county’s 141 Pryor St. main building: The board will convene inside a third-floor suite from 8:30 a.m. to 12:45 p.m., then inside assembly hall from 1 p.m. to 5:30 p.m. Both of those room have the technology to host Zoom meetings.
So what is the biggest personnel gap in the Fulton elections department? That’d be the top job.
Fulton — home to roughly 750,000 active voters — has been without a full-time elections director since April 1. The interim director Nadine Williams has been with the county’s elections department more than a decade.
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
The five-member board, comprised of Democrats and Republicans, votes on elections policy and decides things like hundreds of polling place locations. The board also recommends finalists for elections director that are usually ratified by the Fulton County Commission.
The position is open because Richard Barron announced his resignation at the end of 2021 but agreed to stay on until April 1 to help ensure a smooth transition.
Board members announced a sole finalist in late March — Derek Bowens, who currently leads elections in Durham County, North Carolina — only for him to bow out less than 24 hours later. He cited his reason as “a family matter.”
No other finalist has been announced since then. Early voting in the general election begins Oct. 17 — or in about 35 days.
Anyone walking into the job faces the prospect of a Republican-run state government temporarily taking over elections management in the Democratic stronghold of Fulton, depending upon the results of an ongoing state investigation into how the county runs elections. Officials have said that any takeover would wait until after this year’s results are certified.
It is shaping up to be a hot cycle that could draw many voters. UGA football legend Republican Herschel Walker is challenging incumbent Democrat U.S. Sen. Raphael Warnock for his federal seat and Democratic Gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams is looking to oust Governor Brian Kemp.
Credit: WSBTV Videos
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