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On August 15 Judge David Emerson with the Senior Superior Court again ordered the Fulton County Board of Commissioners (FCBOC) to immediately approve the appointments of Jason Frazier and Julie Adams to the Board of Registration and Elections (FCBRE).The FCBOC refused to appoint the Fulton County Republican Party nominees to the Board of Registration and Elections (FCBRE) in May delaying their appointments for almost two months. Friday’s ruling said the FCBOC must vote at their next scheduled meeting, which is Wednesday, Aug. 20.
Emerson stated in his latest order that “the refusal to appoint the county executive’s nominees” is harmful because it denies Georgians “representation by the people chosen for the Board of Elections.” Democrats on the board disagreed. The battle between the Fulton County GOP and the FCBOC has intensified questions over whether the Democrat-controlled FCBOC applies a partisan litmus test when approving appointments.
Notably, when speaking with Adams about the Fulton County GOP’s lawsuit, she shared that “all Fulton County judges recused themselves from the case, which is why Emerson was assigned to the case”. Judge Emerson is a retired judge who left the bench in 2021 after serving as a superior court judge in Douglas County for 31 years.
On May 21, 2025, the Democrat-controlled Fulton County Board of Commissioners voted 5-2, refusing to seat the legitimate GOP-nominations of Frazier and Adams. Their stated reasons:
Julie Adams’ case provides important context that exposes ongoing and material issues related to the certification of Fulton County elections and many other elections nationwide. Election board members around the country face the conundrum that arises when they are required by law to certify an election for which they do not have the necessary records prior to certification to reconcile the results. The records that Georgia explicitly requires in Fulton County are, according to Adams, “the cast votes list per precinct, per vote method and the list of voters who voted, per precinct per vote method.”
During our conversation on Sunday, Adams explained that the “board violated state law because it did not provide access to the two documents needed to start the process, to make sure that the number of votes cast equals the number of voters that voted, most clearly defined in 183-1-12-.12(f),, it is to ensure one voter casts one vote–and to investigate if these numbers do not match.”
The aforementioned article concerning Adams’ lawsuit was written by the left-leaning outlet, Democracy Docket. It is misleading because it asserts there were three separate lawsuits, making Adams appear to be more litigious than she is. There was essentially one lawsuit with three proceedings related to the same issue; the question as to whether a questionable election should be certified without being able to first reconcile the results.
Her certification case was dismissed without prejudice on September 9, 2024 because the case had to be refiled due to a technicality. Adams then sought remedies from the court and Judge McBurney picked up the case where they left off. The case ended in an order from McBurney stating that Adams could get any documents she wished. However, McBurney ordered her to certify and that a failure to receive documents could not be used as a justification not to certify. Adams has appealed and the case is still pending.
Later in 2024 after the November General Election, Adams voted to certify because of the court order and “not because Trump won” as some reported. Again, she was ordered by the court to certify even though she didn’t have the most basic proper, lawful records.
In the following November 12 clip, Adams asks Elections Chief Nadine Williams when the records she needs to reconcile the votes will arrive. Williams promised their arrival but only the statement of votes cast was provided, and it wasn’t until after certification. Adams never received the list of voters who cast a ballot (Numbered List of Voters). To this day Adams does not understand why the records cannot be provided before certification.
“All of it is done electronically in real time when people are voting,” said Adams. “I should have the numbered list of voters and statement of votes cast report electronically on the night of election day. All I am trying to do is basic math, a reconciliation to ensure that there is one vote cast per one voter.”
Critics labeled Frazier and Adams as “election deniers” and “election critics” claiming among other things that their actions threatened voter confidence and suppressed votes.
Oddly, the FCBOC immediately approved Sherri Allen’s appointment as Chair of the FCBRE, even though her own record is arguably just as controversial. She too has been involved in an ongoing legal battle to withhold Fulton County election records from state oversight.
A bar complaint was also filed against Allen on July 11 requesting her suspension for allegedly “unlawfully filing two separate lawsuits against the State of Georgia on behalf of the FCBRE without authorization, knowledge, consent, or vote of the FCBRE.” In both instances, Allen allegedly “retained outside counsel and misappropriated funds to finance the lawsuits without authorization.”
Nevertheless, Allen’s appointment faced little resistance, leading many Republicans to conclude that the BOC applies a partisan standard when deciding which nominees to approve.
The Fulton County GOP sued the FCBOC in June for refusing to appoint the two nominees in May. The GOP argued that Georgia law provides that “the chairperson of the county executive committee of the political party whose candidates…received the largest number of votes in this state for members of the General Assembly… at the last election held for all members of the General Assembly ‘ shall’ appoint” two individuals for seats on the FCBRE without interference from the FCBOC.
Unfortunately, the Fulton County Board of Commissioners seemed to think otherwise, stating the nominees were “unqualified for the job,” even though one of the nominees, Julie Adams, had already served one term on the FCBRE. The FCBOC voted in 2024 6-0 in favor of her appointment with one member, Marvin Arrington leaving the meeting before the vote. Some members of the FCBOC in May 2025, also stated the nominees were “too far right” for the job.
On August 4, 2025, Judge David Emerson agreed with the Fulton County GOP and issued a writ of mandamus directing the BOC to comply with the Georgia statute that mandates the FCBOC appoint nominated candidates. He opined that the FCBOC’s role is ministerial – limited to confirming that nominees meet basic qualifications such as residency and voter registration – and does not permit scrutiny of political stances or past actions as a vehicle to deny election.
Emerson’s August 4 ruling addressed a key legal question that struck at the center of the dispute: Does the legislature’s use of “shall” in the appointment clause of the FCBRE statute require mandatory action by the FCBOC or is it merely directory it says that shall appoint the nominees.
Judge Emerson concluded that the word “shall” in the appointment statute is mandatory—not directory. He stated:
“The law outlines the process by which members of the election board ‘shall’ be appointed … I did not find anything in the law to support a conclusion that ‘shall’ in the appointment clause is directory only.”
The judge’s decision on August 4 invoked the power of the court to issue a writ of mandamus, or a judicial order to force the commissioners to appoint Frazier and Adams to the FCBRE.
Judge Emerson further clarified the interpretation, stating:
“The Board shall appoint the two members as nominated by the county executive committee chairperson. Those nominees are Jason Frazier and Julie Adams.”
On August 15 Emerson again ordered the FCBOC to immediately appoint Nominees Jason Frazier and Julie Adams, effectively restating his August 4 order to seat them.
The partisan breakdown of the seven-member FCBOC is as follows:
There is no fulsome discussion of this case without at least a cursory review of the battle between the Georgia State Election Board (SEB) and Fulton County.
In late 2024, and after months of debate, the SEB—led in part by Republican Vice Chair Dr. Janice “Jan” Johnston—moved to issue subpoenas for 2020 election materials, including poll pad data, ballot scanner tapes, and absentee ballot records. Johnston argued that Fulton County had failed to cooperate with state monitoring requirements and that subpoenas were necessary for transparency. Johnston was appointed to the board in 2022.
Sherri Allen, as FCBRE chair, led Fulton County’s legal resistance:
Dr. Johnston’s motion passed in the Republican-majority SEB, setting off the legal clash with Allen and Fulton County. Fulton County has failed to provide the records subpoenaed by the Board last November.
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[…] The Republican Party of Fulton County nominated Julie Adams and Jason Frazier to serve on the elections board in May. Despite state law requiring that the county commissioners “shall” accept the appointments, they had previously refused to do so, criticizing Adams and Frazier for their election integrity efforts. […]