The Cobb County Republican Party named Debbie Fisher — an outspoken supporter of former President Donald Trump who frequently questions the integrity of Georgia’s voting systems on social media — to serve on the county’s Board of Elections.
Fisher, who was sworn in during an elections meeting Thursday, has held a leadership role in the Cobb GOP for years and has been involved in elections as a tabulator monitor volunteer since 2020, she said. She is replacing Pat Gartland, who began his term in 2019.
“Fair and transparent elections is my big priority,” Fisher said after the meeting. “I believe that irregularities were ever-present in that (2020) election. I’m not going to go as far as calling it fraud. I do believe there probably was some fraud, but every election has fraud of some kind.”
The Cobb Democratic Committee also made an appointment to the board: Stacy Efrat, an advocate in a parent-led watchdog group that monitors spending by the Cobb County school board. Efrat is replacing Jessica Brooks, who began serving on the board in 2015.
“I’ve been very involved in trying to increase the turnout of voters in Cobb County, and I feel like that work is going to continue once I’m on the board,” Efrat said after the meeting.
Efrat and Fisher’s terms begin July 1.
Each political committee gets one appointee on the elections board; the legislative delegation appoints two members, and the county chair appoints one. But that could change if state lawmakers continue efforts to change the makeup of county election boards as they have in recent years by taking away the political parties’ appointing powers.
The Fulton County elections board recently came under scrutiny when the county’s Republican party nominated a frequent challenger of voters’ eligibility to serve on the board. The Democratic-led county commission twice rejected the nomination.
Residents challenged the eligibility of tens of thousands of voters throughout the state in 2022, including over one thousand in Cobb County, for which Fisher expressed her support at the time. The 2021 election law allows any resident to challenge the qualifications of an unlimited number of voters in their county.
Cobb’s elections board became a Democratic majority in 2020 when the party also swept all county-wide seats, including county chair, sheriff, and district attorney. The elections board will maintain its Democratic majority, with Fisher as the sole Republican member.
