Two employees of the Fulton County Registration & Elections Department have been fired for allegedly shredding paper voter registration applications.
Department director Richard Barron said in a press release that “a number of paper voter registration applications received within the last two weeks” had been destroyed. The incident was referred to the Georgia Secretary of State’s office of investigations.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a statement that it was 300 applications that had been shredded and called on the U.S. Justice Department to launch an investigation.
“After 20 years of documented failure in Fulton County elections, Georgians are tired of waiting to see what the next embarrassing revelation will be,” Raffensperger said. “The Department of Justice needs to take a long look at what Fulton County is doing and how their leadership disenfranchises Fulton voters through incompetence and malfeasance. The voters of Georgia are sick of Fulton County’s failures.”
Preliminary review suggests that employees may have checked out batches of applications for processing, but instead of fully processing them, shredded the forms instead. Fellow employees reported this behavior to their supervisor on the morning of Oct. 8 and the employees were terminated the same day.
Upon learning of the matter, Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts immediately reported it to the office of Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for investigation.
“Elections are the most important function of our government,” Pitts said in a statement. “We have committed to transparency and integrity.”
Any Fulton County resident who has questions or concerns about their application should call (404) 612-7030.
Anyone who attempts to vote in an upcoming election who is found not to be registered will be able to vote on a provisional ballot, and further investigation will follow.
Fulton’s elections department is already targeted for takeover by the state, a provision in controversial Senate Bill 202 signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp following the defeat former President Donald Trump and Democrats taking over the U.S. Senate.
Despite unfounded claims of widespread voter fraud across the state by Trump and his Republican supporters, a panel formed by the State Elections Board is investigating Fulton for a potential takeover.
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