Atlanta, Feb 17, 2021 – The Fulton County Board of Commissioners decided to keep Elections Director Richard Barron in place after the Commissioners refused to affirm a recommendation to terminate him immediately. Barron has received wide praise from Republicans and Democrats for putting in place the most extensive expansion of voting- and voter-access in Georgia history during the November Presidential and January U.S. Senate Runoff elections.
The effort was led by the Republicans on the Commission. The motion to fire Barron was made by North Fulton Republican Commissioner Bob Ellis and seconded by North Fulton Republican Liz Hausmann. Buckhead area Republican Lee Morris joined them and also voted yes to fire Barron. Chairman Robb Pitts, and two other Democratic Commissioners Marvin Arrington and Khadijah Abdur-Rahman voted against firing Barron. The Republicans’ motion failed for a lack of four affirmative votes.
“I am happy that the Board of Commissioners put the County over party today and refused to support the Republicans’ attempted coup to take over Fulton County’s Elections Department and put in their handpicked replacement” said Commissioner Khadijah.
“It’s no secret that state and county Republicans want to: 1) curtail Mr. Barron’s efforts to find funds to expand voting, 2) remove drop boxes and 3) get rid of mobile voting. We will not stand for turning the clock back on voters’ rights in the cradle of the Civil Rights Movement,” Commissioner Khadijah said.
In addition to securing more than $10 million in grants to help improve our elections, under Mr. Barron’s leadership thousands of Fulton voters have enjoyed greater opportunities to vote via:
• Convenient Drop boxes.
• Mobile Voting.
• Expanded Early-Voting locations, days and times.
• Even a mobile-phone election app with all sorts of election information and tools.
