Democratic Fulton Commissioners Vow To Fight New Georgia Voting Law

April 13th, 2021

Fulton County Commissioner Khadijah Abdur-Rahman

Emil Moffatt / WABE

Citing reduced access to absentee ballot drop boxes, the loss of millions of dollars in private funds and facing possible state takeover of its often maligned elections department, Democratic Fulton County commissioners are backing a resolution that would allocate county resources to fighting the state’s new voting law.

The resolution is sponsored by Commissioner Khadijah Abdur-Rahman, who says Senate Bill 202 directly targets Fulton County. She is set to present it at Wednesday’s county commissioners meeting.

“You cannot go and empower the rural area and disenfranchise the metropolitan area,” said Abdur-Rahman. “Let’s be fair across the board. You put in more access for rural Georgia, but not metropolitan Atlanta.”

For the first time, the new law requires at least one absentee ballot drop box in every county, but it also caps the number of drop boxes at one for every 100,000 voters. This would mean Fulton County’s allotment of drop boxes would fall from 38 to eight. The new law also moves all drop boxes inside buildings and allows them to be only open during business hours.

The new law also bans counties from seeking private grant money to fund election operations. Last year, Fulton used millions in private grant money to help fund ballot drop boxes, hire election workers, clean polling places and purchase two mobile voting units. The law also bans mobile voting units.

“We cannot allow our elections director to go and get grants, so we have to find other creative funding,” said Abdur-Rahman. “At the end of the day, it affects the taxpayers.”

The resolution would put the county’s support behind federal voting rights legislation and would direct county attorneys to seek every remedy “in and out of court” to blunt the new voting law’s impact on Fulton County, says Abdur-Rahman.

“That’s what their job is, to make sure we protect the voting rights of the citizens of Fulton County,” Abdur-Rahman said.

Abdur-Rahman was flanked at Tuesday morning’s press conference by fellow commissioner Natalie Hall and State Rep. Mandisha Thomas (D-Atlanta).

“We still have to be here in Georgia, fighting on the ground, not to just wait for a resolution to pass from the federal government,” said Rep. Thomas. “But state, county and municipalities need to work together to fight this.”

Abdur-Rahman says her resolution is also supported by Fulton County chair Robb Pitts and fellow Democratic commissioner Marvin Arrington Jr., both of whom could not attend the news conference because of scheduling conflicts.

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican whose own power under Senate Bill 202 was greatly diminished, released a statement critical of the Fulton resolution.

“Fulton County has been failing its voters for at least 25 years. Each new election cycle brings a new failure and it is Fulton’s voters who suffer,” wrote Raffensperger. “Fulton County’s Democrat commissioners are now taking aim at legislation that could actually bring Fulton’s voters the relief they have been seeking for decades.”