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Inform ★ Engage ★ Empower
December 2025
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As 2025 comes to a close, we’re entering a pivotal stretch for Georgia’s elections — one shaped by turnout, legal battles, reforms, voter list accuracy, and the day-to-day actions of citizens.
This year, many of you strengthened election integrity simply by showing up: voting, volunteering, observing, and asking smart questions. We’ve learned how transparency in Fulton can be excellent at the precincts yet vanish once the process moves into the back office — and how that gap matters for trust.
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This issue highlights the three dimensions that define every election — who votes, how we vote, and how votes are counted — plus several new items that matter as we head toward 2026 — Georgia’s growing lawfare landscape, the statewide debate over hand-marked paper ballots, and an Op-Ed from former Fulton County BRE member Michael Heekin calling for a modern, simplified election code. We’ve added a quiz and quick feedback buttons so you can help shape our priorities for the coming year.
Thank you for being part of this ongoing effort to keep Georgia’s elections simple, accessible, secure, and fully transparent.
Paul Miller
Editor-in-Chief
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🗳️ Fulton County GOP Election Integrity Leadership Team
Team Lead: Kevin Muldowney | BRE Liaison: Kevin Muldowney |
Poll Watchers: Steve Smith | Poll Workers: Lucia Frazier & Melissa Fioriollo |
Newsletter: Paul Miller | Design: Adrianne Miller
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When We Don’t Show Up, We Lose — Big
Low turnout delivered two crushing PSC defeats (63-37%!) —
a warning for 2026.
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November’s turnout was dismal — and the results showed it. Republicans lost both Public Service Commission races by a stunning 63–37% margin.
If we repeat that kind of turnout in 2026, the impact will be enormous — up and down the ballot. Every race, every seat, and every policy direction depends on participation.
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Lawfare Is the New Normal —
Georgia Must Get Ready
Three major legal fights this fall reveal the same pattern —
and a warning for 2026.
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This fall brought a clear pattern: a lawsuit against the State Election Board, a baseless ethics complaint against Commissioner Bridget Thorne, and the collapse of the Trump prosecution. Lawfare is now the new normal.
The tactic is simple: target conservatives with legal pressure, drag out the process, and leave taxpayers footing the bill. That means we have to plan ahead. Better documentation. Clean processes. Early legal readiness.
There is some good news. After Stacey Abrams and her New Georgia Project admitted to major violations, lawmakers are now working on stricter rules to prevent future abuses. And locally, leaders like Jan Johnson and Bridget Thorne are responding with clarity, transparency, and courage.
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Policy Spotlight
Clear, practical debates shaping Georgia’s 2026 elections.
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Hand-Marked Paper Ballots on the SEB Agenda
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At the December 10 meeting, the State Election Board will take up a topic that continues to generate debate in Georgia: whether the state should return to hand-marked paper ballots (HMPBs) instead of using the current ballot-marking devices (BMDs).
Here’s a quick, clear look at the main arguments on each side so you can weigh in.
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The Case For Hand-Marked Paper Ballots
👍🏻 Simple, familiar, low-tech — and cheaper
👍🏻 Easier to observe: everything happens in the open
👍🏻 Audits use the actual ballot voters marked
👍🏻 Less electronic gear that can fail or be hacked
👍🏻 Fewer steps for poll workers on election night
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The Case Against Hand-Marked Paper Ballots
👎🏻 More voter mistakes (stray marks, unclear intent)
👎🏻 Slower at busy precincts; lines could grow
👎🏻 More space and staffing needed for paper handling
👎🏻 Recounts take longer and require more labor
👎🏻 Accessibility requires keeping some BMDs resulting in a costly hybrid system.
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Should Georgia replace the current BMDs and return to Hand-Marked Paper Ballots?
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Op-Ed: Georgia needs a modern election code.
The current code was enacted in 1981.
Former Fulton elections board member:
It’s time for a modern code that restores trust.
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Georgia’s election code hasn’t been rewritten in 44 years — and it shows.
In a clear, thoughtful Op-Ed now posted on our blog (with his permission), former Fulton County BRE member Michael Heekin explains how outdated language, confusing structure, and a recent Georgia Supreme Court ruling combine to undermine confidence in our elections.
He also highlights why the current electronic workflow — especially memory-card handling on election night — makes public transparency harder, not easier.
Heekin makes a simple case: if we want voters to trust the process, we need a clear, modern, readable election code designed for today’s technology and today’s expectations.
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Clean Voter Rolls Build Confidence
It’s easy to add names — even bad ones —
but hard to clean them out.
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Georgia’s 159 counties each maintain their own voter lists with broad discretion, and the State Election Board has little power to enforce standards or demand consistent reporting.
Fulton County has 113 registrations for every 100 voting-aged citizens — a number that defies common sense. Bloated rolls undermine confidence and make accountability harder.
The Republican Secretary of State resists outside scrutiny to protect his narrative that Georgia elections “run perfectly,” while the Democratic leadership of Fulton County Elections fights transparency to avoid embarrassment and maintain control. The incentives may differ, but the result is the same: less sunlight, not more.
It’s easy to add — motor-voter and DDS feed bad or incomplete data into the system — but hard to remove. Until that imbalance is fixed, every election starts on shaky ground.
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Looking Ahead to 2026
• How Fulton’s voter rolls compare to other Georgia counties
• What happens to your registration when you move out of state
• How voter challenges work — and what reforms might help
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Would you like to see more about Who Votes?
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Practical Tip:
When Someone Moves, Close the Loop
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When a family member moves out of Georgia, their driver’s license surrender should eventually trigger Georgia to remove them from the rolls — but as this real-life example shows, it may take years.
My daughter moved to Texas more than three years ago. She surrendered her Georgia license to get a Texas one. She has never voted in Georgia. Yet this month, we finally received the notice (pictured) telling her Georgia had just now detected the change.
The fix is simple and proactive: If someone in your family moves out of state, have them cancel their Georgia registration immediately.
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Participation Starts with Us
If you want better elections, help run them.
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Every election depends on citizens like Steve Smith of Milton — a lifelong conservative who now leads the Poll Watcher Program for FCRP (part of the Election Integrity Committee).
He has watched precincts across Fulton and observed tabulation and BRE meetings at the Election Hub since 2020. A natural lifelong learner, Steve enjoys seeing how elections really work and helping strengthen transparency simply by being present.
Curious whether poll watching is for you? Steve says it’s simple to get started — and when you speak up about something that doesn’t look right, you help protect the fairness of the election for everyone.
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Would you like to see more about How We Vote?
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Looking Ahead to 2026
• How to become a poll watcher or poll worker
• The debate over hand-marked paper ballots
• Why citizen involvement matters more than social media commentary
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How the Votes are Counted
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Bring Sunlight to Where the Votes Are Counted
Fulton proves it can do transparency at the precincts —
Now we need it in the back office.
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Most Fulton County precinct workers are open and professional, but sunlight disappears once the process moves to the Election Hub, where tabulation occurs. Records that should be public are withheld, observers are restricted, and even the U.S. Department of Justice has been ignored in its requests for election data. Fulton County often takes steps that hide key parts of the process from public view. As long as Fulton stands alone among Georgia’s 159 counties—refusing to share data or open its process—it’s hard to trust the system in Fulton.
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Test Your Knowledge
How Far Has Fulton County Gone to Block Transparency?
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A. Blocked confirmation of reform-minded nominees to the Board of Registration & Elections (BRE)
B. Filed ethics complaints against Fulton County Board of Commissioners (BoC) member Bridget Thorne while she was advocating for stronger oversight and transparency
C. Failed to fully and promptly respond to information requests from the State Election Board (SEB)
D. Delayed or declined meaningful responses to information requests from the U.S. Department of Justice
E. Limited ordinary citizens’ ability to observe at the Hub, by pushing them too far away to actually see, citing “space,” “security,” or “proprietary systems.”
F. All of the above
Why this matters: If voters can’t see what’s happening inside the Election Hub, trust collapses — regardless of which party holds power.
👉 See the answer at the end of this newsletter.
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Looking Ahead to 2026
• Who actually has authority — the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections (BRE), the Georgia State Election Board (SEB), the Fulton County Board of Commissioners (BoC), or the Georgia Secretary of State (SoS)?
• Why transparency at precincts is high, but sunlight vanishes at the Election Hub
• What’s next for Jason Frazier and Julie Adams on the Fulton County BRE — and what it means for oversight
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Would you like to see more about How the Votes are Counted?
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Tell us what matters most to you.
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If you have ideas, questions, or topics you think deserve attention, we want to hear from you. Election integrity is a team effort — and your perspective helps us stay focused on what matters most.
You can also use this space to suggest improvements to our Election Integrity Resource Guide, the go-to starting point for anyone getting involved.
Share your thoughts anytime →
Looking for earlier editions? Browse all past FCRP Election Integrity Newsletters here.
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Answer: F - All of the above
Yes — all of these have happened in Fulton County:
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Fights over appointments to the BRE,
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Ethics charges aimed at a board member who pushed for transparency,
- Slow or incomplete responses to oversight bodies like the SEB and DOJ, and
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Practical barriers that make it hard for ordinary citizens to actually observe what’s going on.
None of these alone proves bad intent. But taken together, they paint a picture of a county that too often pushes back on sunlight instead of welcoming it.
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