Georgia’s Fulton County approves plan for independent monitor team to oversee general election

ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia’s most populous county, which has had a history of voting problems and was a focus of former President Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss, has approved a plan for an independent monitor team to oversee this year’s general election.

The Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections on Thursday considered two monitor proposals and voted to accept one and to reject the other. Board Chair Cathy Woolard said the selected proposal now goes to the State Election Board, which called for the monitor, for consideration.

This will be Fulton County’s second consecutive presidential election conducted under the watch of an independent monitor. The heavily Democratic county is home to about 11% of the state’s electorate and includes most of the city of Atlanta. It has long been subject to national scrutiny because of its history of problems, including long lines and slow vote reporting. It is a favorite punching bag for Republicans, including Trump, who claimed without proof that that widespread voter fraud in Fulton County cost him the 2020 election in Georgia.

Also this week, it became public that Woolard plans to leave the board July 25, with just over three months left to go before the November election. She had previously chaired the board from September 2021 to May 2023 and was appointed chair again in April after the then-chair stepped down.

In a July 3 letter to county Board of Commissioners Chair Robb Pitts, Woolard said she took the role in an interim capacity to run the May primary and June primary runoff elections and that “it is time to let someone who can serve through the fall elections take the reins.”

The five-person Fulton County election board includes two members