Georgia GOP Dismisses Officer Over Unlawful Voting, Election Integrity in Focus

Georgia’s Republican Party has dismissed one of its officers after an administrative law judge determined that he voted unlawfully nine times after migrating to the state.

The state Republican Committee voted 146-24 on Friday to dismiss Brian K. Pritchard, its first vice chairman, according to state Chairman Josh McKoon following the closed meeting.

Georgia is one of several state Republican parties in crisis as fans of Donald Trump have taken control at the grassroots level, dismissing former leaders and demanding that the party prioritise Trump’s baseless accusations of fraud in the 2020 election.

Many established Georgia Republicans, including Governor Brian Kemp, have left the state party organisation. Kemp, for example, does not intend to attend the state Republican Convention next week in Columbus.

However, the fervour is having an influence, since demands for “election integrity” have resulted in numerous amendments to Georgia election legislation. Earlier this week, Kemp signed legislation that could make it easier to remove people from the voting rolls by challenging their eligibility.

Under pressure from GOP activists, Republicans passed a broad law in 2021 that shortened the period for seeking a ballot by mail, permitted only limited use of ballot drop boxes, and made it unlawful to provide food or water to voters waiting in line outside a voting place.

That focus made the findings against Pritchard particularly unpleasant for many Republican activists. Administrative Law Judge Lisa Boggs determined in March that Pritchard was still on probation when he relocated to north Georgia’s Gilmer County after pleading guilty to faking signatures on two checks worth $38,000 in his native state of Pennsylvania in 1996.

She ruled that Pritchard lied when he registered to vote in 2008, claiming that he was not serving a criminal conviction. Boggs determined that Pritchard voted illegally in nine elections between 2008 and 2010, fined him $5,000, gave a public reprimand, and ordered him to return the $375 spent by the State Election Board on the matter.

Pritchard, who hosts an internet conservative talk programme, has consistently denied wrongdoing, claiming he did not realise he was still on probation in 2008. After McKoon requested him to resign, Pritchard said McKoon and others were out to get him for opposing so-called RINOs, or Republicans in name only.

“My mission was clear: to steer our party back on course and ensure that in 2024, Donald J. Trump would rightfully reclaim his position as our nation’s leader,” Pritchard posted to Facebook in April. “But as I began to raise difficult questions and challenge the current quo, I encountered internal pushback. In the viewpoint of the entrenched RINO establishment, criticising their authority is equivalent to heresy. They’d rather protect their power than defend the values we hold dear.”

McKoon stated Friday after the vote that removing Pritchard was necessary since he refused to stand down. “Today’s vote demonstrates how seriously we take election integrity,” McKoon stated in his statement.

Other party activists agreed.

“It was the right thing to do,” Debbie Dooley, a vocal Trump supporter, wrote on the social media platform X. “The focus needs to be electing Donald Trump and fighting for election integrity and combating election fraud.”

Pritchard’s removal might exacerbate a simmering conflict over who should represent Georgia on the Republican National Committee. Aside from McKoon, who serves on the committee by virtue of his position, delegates will elect two other members—last time, it was Committeewoman Ginger Howard and Committeeman Jason Thompson.

Those two now face rivals, some of whom are motivated by the same forces that helped Pritchard win last year.

Among them are David Cross, the party’s Second Vice-Chairman and one of Pritchard’s most outspoken supporters, and his wife, Shawn Cross. David Cross declined to speak to The Associated Press on Friday, citing criticism of the news agency’s previous coverage of the State Election Board.

Other contenders are expected to include Jason Frazier, who has been engaged in challenging voter eligibility, and Amy Kremer, who began her career in Republican politics as a Tea Party activist before becoming an ardent Trump supporter. A group organised by Kremer acquired permission for the “Stop the Steal” event in Washington on January 6, 2021. Some rally attendees eventually stormed the United States Capitol.