The two Republicans on the seven-person commission, Bridget Thorne and Bob Ellis, decried the attacks on Morris and praised his public service. “Otherwise, the optics, as they say, aren’t good,” Morris wrote, adding that his nomination had become and his service on the board would be “divisive,” which he said is “the last thing I want for our county.” But he said he understood the feelings of so many Democrats that a Democratic county should have a Democratic majority on the elections board. Morris wrote that he had “always tried to avoid the hyper-partisanship that has been so destructive in our country and state” and said he had thought he could have brought nonpartisanship to the elections board. The substitution of Perkins-Hooker was cheered by many attending the commission meeting.īefore opening the floor for public comment, Pitts read aloud an email he had received from Morris withdrawing his nomination. They also said Morris hadn’t demonstrated a commitment to protecting voting rights and worried he would bend to the will of the two other Republican board members. They complained of insufficient time for public input between the announcement of his nomination on Friday and the vote Wednesday. The county Democratic and Republican parties get two appointments apiece to round out the five-person board.ĭemocrats and voting rights activists had raised alarms and urged the commissioners not to approve Morris’ appointment.
The nomination of Morris, a Republican, would have shifted control of the the elections board from Democrats to Republicans in the heavily Democratic county, which includes most of Atlanta and is home to just over 1 million people. Her nomination - announced at the start of Wednesday’s commission meeting - came as a surprise to many since commission Chairman Robb Pitts had last week nominated former commissioner Lee Morris to fill the seat. The Fulton County Board of Commissioners voted Wednesday to approve the selection of lawyer Patrise Perkins-Hooker to serve as chair of the county Registration and Elections Board. The elections board in Georgia’s most populous county, a Democratic stronghold targeted by former President Donald Trump after his narrow 2020 loss in the state, will soon have new leadership.
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