Blog - The Georgia Republican Assembly

Spalding County Moves to Defund Dominion

June 29, 2023 by Georgia Republican Assembly in Issues

Last night, in a strategic move, the Spalding County Board of Commissioners voted to reduce the Board of Elections budget by $85,000.

This was the annual budget review for the non-partisan board. The Board of Commissioners doesn’t have jurisdiction to order the Board of Elections to ditch dominion and move to paper ballots, however, the Commissioners did what they have authority to do, which is to remove some of the funding, communicate a consensus, and make ‘the ask’ for paper ballots. They instructed the Board of Elections to “take whatever action they need to, including potentially moving to paper ballots instead of machines” as reported by the Georgia Record.

The meeting was not heavily attended, nor contentious. The vote was 5-0 unanimous in favor of the reallocation.

“ A new elections board was put in place and I’ve been walking alongside them every step of the way,” said Holly Kesler.

Kesler hopes to assist other counties to follow the example of Spalding County. “I’m writing a playbook for honest, transparent elections.”

Following the release of the Halderman report, which revealed numerous vulnerabilities in the Dominion electronic voting system, election integrity activists are more committed than ever to bringing about meaningful reform to ensure honest elections.

A decision to move to paper ballots would result in a significant cost savings to the taxpayers of Spalding County. When it comes time to renew the Dominion contracts, which is done at the county level, having limited funds will incentivize the Board to look at other options other than the expensive Dominion machines.

GRA President and attorney Alex Johnson submitted a letter in support of the Spalding County paper ballot effort that was read in the meeting. The letter writes “…it appears that there are county attorneys that consistently are attempting to cause fear among public officials, namely Board of elections Members and County commissioners, in order to discourage them from exercising any power or authority to increase trust in our election system.”

The letter references several sections in the Georgia Code that provide strong legal support for a county’s decision to move to use paper ballots instead of the Dominion machines.

The letter further states “… it is my opinion that it would be both appropriate and legal to implement the use of paper ballots in the upcoming election to ensure its smooth conduct and the maintenance of public trust.”

The Georgia Record reported: “With fewer than 30,000 votes to process, the county should easily be able to run paper-only elections and count those ballots by hand at the precinct and have them reported accurately and in timely fashion.”

“The synergy of the Board of Commissioners right now is leading Spalding County in a new direction that is beneficial for all parties,” said GRA member Michelle Cobb. “The money that was reallocated from the unknown special election funding to the Land Bank was the best use of the funds considering the state of our community, post-tornados.”

The Spalding County Board of Elections will hold their next meeting on July 11th and election integrity activists across Georgia are eagerly awaiting their decision.

The Georgia Republican Assembly will now mobilize patriots across our state to show support for those commissioners that represent the 37th largest county in Georgia and who are, despite great opposition from the swamp creatures in Atlanta, standing up for safe, secure, and trustworthy elections.

If you would like to send a message of gratitude to the Spalding County Commissioners, you may do so at this web page.

Pro-Family Activists Arrested for Peacefully Protesting Rome “Transqueer” Pride Parade

June 24, 2023 by Abigail Darnell in events / Issues

Rome, GA – Today a group from the Etowah Republican Assembly led a protest against the City of Rome’s “Transqueer Pride” parade. They were joined with members from a local church and other concerned citizens. Police arrested four of them as they peacefully waived signs from the side-walk in view of the people participating in the parade.

This second annual event for the city features “trans” men dressed as women performing highly sexualized dances and other acts, although it was marketed as a “family-friendly” event that children were encouraged to attend. One witness reported a 4-year-old boy wearing a girl’s dress. The child’s parents encouraged him on to the stage with the drag queens where one drag queen grasped his hand and attempted to induce him to dance with him. The child seemed terrified and bolted from the stage. The protesters believe sexually provocative events like these should be restricted to adult entertainment and not be permitted in public or in the presence of children.

Another witness reported a male attendee wearing a skirt so short that part of his genitalia was exposed in view of the many children in the park. Last year’s “pride” event included bare-chested women and sex toys being sold at eye level of the children.

You can help us continue this fight for freedom of speech and protection of children by donating to the GRA. These patriots are going to need legal counsel and media support to ensure their story gets told.

“I understand a lot of people are scared of being called names like ‘transphobic,’ but there is a sexualization of children issue going on here,” said Melissa Smith, one of the protesters. “You can’t call something family friendly when it’s sponsored by sex shops. I don’t care about your lifestyle, I care about protecting children.”

“It’s time we wake people up. Someone at some point had to do something about it. Now they want to drag children with autism into it,” said Angela Rubino, one of the activists who was arrested, referencing a social media post from the group’s organizers that specifically targeted gender dysphoric people. A scientific link has been observed between people with autism who also suffer from “gender dysphoria” and that fact has made the autistic community a new target for trans groomers.

The four people arrested were charged with “unlawful assembly.” However, the protestors say that they were simply exercising their First Amendment-protected rights of freedom of speech and right to peaceably assemble. They were not hurting anyone, not inciting any riots, nor even speaking over the “trans”-performers who used amplification equipment. Peaceful counter protests are a common and accepted part of American life.

Brad Barnes, Angela Rubino, David Smith, and Melissa Smith were the four Etowah Republican Assembly members from the group who were arrested by police. They reported that the policemen seemed awkward and embarrassed about arresting them.

“They didn’t read us our Miranda rights or nothing!” said Angela Rubino.

Employees at the jail indicated they had never seen anyone arrested and booked for an ordinance violation. In most cases they should have simply received a ticket. They were released shortly thereafter on bail, but in addition to the charge, the four activists were issued a 72-hour ban from all the facilities owned by Floyd County Parks and Recreation.

You can donate to help provide legal support to these persecuted patriots.

“If you cannot use your rights, you don’t have them. And if you need to ask permission to use your rights, they’re not rights, they’re privileges,” said Barnes, President of the Etowah Republican Assembly. “For me it was the intersection of defending children from what is obviously inappropriate for anyone, and defending the Constitution.”

GRA Member & Election Integrity Advocate Larry Hand Appointed to Cherokee Board of Elections

June 22, 2023 by Georgia Republican Assembly in events / Issues

On Tuesday evening, the Cherokee County Board of Commissioners met to appoint four new members to the Board of Elections. The Board of Commissioners there is made up of four Republicans, who could have appointed four strong, election integrity candidates to serve in those positions, yet three of their choices did not reflect a concern for integrity, nor for the will of the people.

GRA member Beth Mercure, an accountability-minded election integrity activist and Republican precinct officer in the county said: “I am very happy to announce they appointed Larry Hand, but very disappointed by the lost opportunity for them to do the right thing by The People!” Larry Hand has been a member of the North Metro Republican Assembly since September of 2022.

At the meeting, an argument was made that, since Cherokee County votes roughly 75% Republican, perhaps the appointments should reflect that voting percentage, with three Republicans and one Democrat. After all, the Board of Commissioners consists of four Republicans and no Democrats.

Those present reported that all the constituents who spoke at the meeting, except for one, were in favor of the 3-1 allotment. Nevertheless, this suggestion was ignored.

Of the two Republicans who were appointed, one of them appears to have been a nomination from a brand new group outside the official Cherokee County Republican Party. This is an unprecedented move, though not entirely outside of the legal parameters of the commissioners, under a brand new law that was recently passed.

North Metro RA President Richard Jordan from Cherokee expressed more optimism about being able to possibly work with both of the two Republican appointments to the local Board of Elections to advance election integrity, even though one of them was not nominated by the official Cherokee GOP.

“Another controversy is whether and how the different factions of the Republican Party should be represented. The new leadership of the local Republican Party is mostly supported by those who seriously doubt the integrity of the elections process and want to make major changes,” wrote Harry Johnston, Chairman of the Cherokee Board of Commissioners.

“But I believe there’s an equal or larger group of local Republicans who believe elections have been substantially fair and accurate, at least in Cherokee County. I’m in that group. The BOC may decide to appoint one BOER member from each of these two Republican groups.”

Clearly election integrity is a central, defining issue that has dominated the recent changes in the Republican Party. Many activists in the GOP believe that evidence of vulnerabilities in Georgia’s elections system such as the Halderman Report reveal simply cannot be ignored any longer. This evening Gwinnett County will also be having a Board of Elections meeting where activists hope to make an impression.

The Accountability Rule Goes Local

One recourse that the Cherokee GOP, and other Republican organizations in red counties are considering is to adopt their own local version of the Accountability Rule. While the state GOP is still considering the implications of the proposal, local county GOPs may provide a testing ground to assure more people it could succeed at a state-wide level.

County parties have the constitutional authority to qualify Republican candidates for county commissioner races, and if they believe a commissioner is not working in the interests of the Republican cause, they can vote to block incumbent commissioners from running for re-election as a Republican in the next primary election.

Already, in several solid red counties where the GRA has helped the grassroots to win this year during conventions season, GOP organizations are planning how they could implement their own version of the Accountability Rule against wayward “Republican” commissioners come next March. These counties often find themselves in the unpleasant position of having Democrats run as Republicans (because no Democrat would be elected out-right in these rural districts otherwise). While election integrity is a large concern, constituents are also concerned about other bad policies being foisted on them, such as interference with the free market in rural places where restrictions have been added against farming chickens and other livestock. Corporate cronyism at the county level has also been a subject of scorn.

So-called “Republican” county commissioners may be running under a different banner next year if they don’t listen to their local GOP leaders.

Fulton Commissioners Subvert Law to Block Appointment of Republican Jason Frazier to Board of Elections

June 21, 2023 by Abigail Darnell in Issues

The Fulton County Board of Commissioners this morning voted to illegally reject the Fulton Republican Party nominee to the Board of Elections. More than thirty election integrity activists (including many local GRA members) showed up to speak and passionately addressed the Board in favor of Jason Frazier, who was nominated by the Fulton County Republican Party.

The word “shall” in the Fulton Ordinance 14-33 means they are required to accept the nomination from the Fulton County Republican Party.

The Fulton County Commission has always appointed the four Board nominations from both the Republican and Democrat chairs of the county, giving them two slots each. So why try to subvert the law now?

They opposed Jason Frazier for being a “disrupter,” and Democrat Commissioner Barrett indicated in a recent podcast interview that she was opposing him in an effort to protect against the “far right.”

Fulton resident Jason Frazier, has been volunteering his own time and money to clean up voter rolls in his county because the county wasn’t doing its job as required by law. In one example of his challenges, an abandoned house at 850 Oak Street NW in Atlanta had twenty voter registrations!

Over the last two weeks, activists have been collecting signatures on a petition for free and fair representation on the Board.

They were able to collect a large number of signatures despite the petition link being entirely banned from Facebook.

“I am holding a petition of 900 Fulton constituents!” declared activist Jamie Parrish.

The activists that took to the mic to make public comments were met with loud applause from the crowd. GRA Member Michael Gordon said, “The Board just re-appointed those who fail to do their job, and opposed Jason Frazier, who has been doing the job!”

“You have made Fulton County a nation-wide joke on elections. I call you to rise above your partisan hack and appoint Jason Frazier to the Board of Elections,” said GRA Member Julie Allen.

Republican Commissioner Bridget Thorne pointed out that the county is eager to save costs, yet they continue to do nothing about the “bloated voter rolls”, which cost tax payers money in the equipment that is required for every 2,000 registered voters.

Jason Frazier had been the one to discover that there were approximately 20,000 duplicate voter registrations in Fulton and approximately 2,000 registrations had no address listed. How were they registered with no address?

The Fulton Board of Elections overwhelmingly acknowledged that Jason’s challenges to the voter rolls were correct — nearly 100% of them! Yet instead of showing gratitude for his volunteer service, and recognizing his experience and potential, the Fulton Board of Commissioners blocked his appointment to the Board of Elections. To the Democrat Commissioners, Frazier’s challenges were considered to be “frivolous and irrelevant.”

The motion was made by commissioner Thorne and seconded by Commissioner Bob Ellis, but the vote to approve Jason Frazier failed by a vote of 5-2.

In Floyd County: Opposition to “Transqueer Pride”

June 21, 2023 by Georgia Republican Assembly in Issues

*Angela Rubino with Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene*

This week Etowah Republican Assembly Vice President Angela Rubino, supported by many other members, spoke out against the facilitation by the Rome City Commission for the Transqueer Pride event being hosted in Heritage Park on June 24th in Rome, Georgia. The event organizers repeatedly call for children to be brought to the event in their promotional materials.

Last year’s event featured middle-aged men, dressed in secondhand thrift-store women’s clothing, doing sexualized dances for tips in full view of the children in attendance – which is illegal under city ordinances as well as Georgia law.

However, city police refused to enforce the law against such a display of left-wing politics in action. What sort of middle-aged men specifically seek out an audience of children to put on a display of this sort in a public park?

Vendors at last years event hosted in the same public park featured sex toys for sale at children’s eye level as well as women walking around bare-chested.

The currently Establishment-dominated Floyd County Republican Party, chaired by

Jamie Palmer, as well as the local Republican legislative delegation, as led by corporate lobbyist-controlled State Rep. Katie Dempsey (R-Floyd), not only refused to speak out against the event but the Floyd GOP leadership expressed vociferous criticism of Angela and others who did so. Rome Police have indicated that they will take action against people exercising their constitutional rights of free speech to peacefully assemble in public areas as they protest at this year’s “pride” event.

GA GOP Moves in the RIGHT Direction with Election of New Officers

June 13, 2023 by Georgia Republican Assembly in conventions

Columbus—A whopping 2,057 delegates from across the state assembled at the GA GOP State Convention last weekend, taking up business to continue to improve the Republican Party in our state. They also were excited to hear former President Donald Tump provide the keynote address on Saturday afternoon.

Some business was completed and other business was left undone. The main accomplishment of the convention was that delegates swept out of all of the most outspoken, obstructionist, and antagonistic officers or candidates promoting the interests of the Atlanta Establishment. The immediate list of GA GOP Executive Committee members (apart from the District Chairs), went from having five hard-core Establishment people to having only one. That is impressive improvement!

This election was a clear example of the success of the accountability movement. Conservatives have been slowly making gains each convention for the last 10 years, and now have clearly tipped the scales. The political industry lost it’s grip on the GA Republican Party.

Our volunteer GRA members handed out thousands of brochures and stickers for our endorsed candidates, gave away hundreds of educational books, sold lots of fun SWAG, and promoted several of our initiatives at our vendor table and in the hallways at the event throughout the weekend. Networking and meeting like-minded patriots from around the state is always a delight at these state conventions that bring Republicans together from every corner of Georgia.

GRA-Endorsed Winners

The GRA-endorsed candidate for State Party Chairman Josh McKoon won his race with 54% of the vote! A highly-rated former State Senator, Josh ran promising to build upon the success of Chairman Shafer by uniting factions, raising funds for “law-fare,” and continuing the fight for election integrity in Georgia. The GRA also saw three other of its GRA-endorsed candidates win election to the GA GOP Executive Committee. One of them, Cobb GOP Chairwoman and GRA member Salleigh Grubbs, won election as the new Over 80K Chair on Friday afternoon. Caroline Jeffords from Fulton County was another GRA-endorsed candidate who soundly won her election for GA GOP Secretary with 59% of the vote. Caroline has been lauded as an election-integrity heroine by taking the lead as a plaintiff on one of the first lawsuits filed after the 2020 election, and her case is still pending. Another big win came for GRA-endorsed candidate Suzi Voyles — an Eagle Forum leader and legend for election integrity — who was elected by a land-slide 80% of the vote as the new Assistant Secretary!

What happened with the Accountability Rule?

June 12, 2023 by Georgia Republican Assembly in conventions

Some delegates left the convention on Saturday night when it adjourned around 8:30pm wondering aloud, “Whatever happened to the proposed Accountability Rule?” The behind-the-scenes story began when the proposal was submitted to the convention Rules Committee. It has been reported that the convention Rules Committee this year was essentially the same as the permanent Rules Committee for the GA GOP over the last two-year term. That is significant because it means that our newly elected District Chairs from across the state have not yet had the opportunity to nominate replacement members to the Rules Committee.

With the old Rules Committee members still in control in spite of the changes that were won over the last several months at the district conventions, the Establishment majority on that committee voted to block the Accountability Rule from getting out of committee and on the floor of the convention for any review, discussion, amendment, or vote.

Many of the delegates were disturbed by the convention rules submitted to the body which included a requirement that rules and resolutions brought from the floor would only be considered if they received a 2/3 majority vote and even then only “without debate.” This language was troubling since it silences the delegates ability to freely exchange ideas and removes their ability to direct and have influence on the party.

GRA leadership made a valiant effort to get the convention rules amended so that the Accountability Rule could be brought up on the floor of the convention, but the presiding convention Chairman State Rep. Barry Fleming (R-Columbia) blocked it by violating Robert’s Rules of Order so as to prevent any change to the convention rules or the order of the agenda.

NFRA Directors attorney Catherine Bernard(DeKalb) and Nathaniel Darnell (Cobb) each made motions on the floor to amend the proposed convention rules, which were seconded.

Roberts Rules requires that motions to amend be discussed and voted on before the body can vote on the originally proposed item. (See e.g, Robert’s Rules, 12th Edition § 6.5(2).) But Fleming skipped over the votes to amend and proceeded directly to vote on the original proposal without discussing or voting on the amendments. After the body voted to approve the original convention rules, a motion was made to appeal the decision of the convention Chairman. But Fleming did not ask the body to vote on whether his attempt to skip over the amendments was valid; instead, he asked them to affirm whether he counted the vote to approve the original proposal correctly!

When delegates called “Division!” Chairman Fleming ignored it and moved forward with his original call based solely on his eyeballing of the standing votes in the narrow hall. The bright lights and numerous pillars blocked his view almost entirely of the delegates in the back of the hall, and rather than having the sergeant-at-arms manually count the delegates row by row in the aisles—which is what the motion of “division” requires, he ignored it. This led to many delegates complaining that his perception of the votes were grossly inaccurate, and electronic handheld clicker devices were used to tabulate all other votes in the convention thereafter.

As a Republican state legislator, Chairman Fleming would himself be subject to the Accountability Rule, were it to be successful. This conflict of interest did not go unnoticed by advocates of the rule change, some of whom believed the Accountability Rule was the most urgent and consequential business to be addressed at the convention.

The gridlock over the Accountability Rule led out-going Chairman David Shafer to propose a resolution to the GA GOP State Committee on Thursday which called for his successor Josh McKoon to appoint a committee to review the Accountability Rule and other similar solutions, to investigate their implications, and to make a recommendation by October of this year. That resolution passed out of the state committee. Chairman Shafer said that the resolution was “binding” on the next Chairman. McKoon promised that he would appoint attorney and GRA President Alex Johnson, the original author of the Accountability Rule, to that committee.

In previous years, resolutions have been passed to appoint similar committees, and nothing has come from it. We will see if the GA GOP makes good on their word this time.

Come visit us at the GRA table in Vendor Hall

June 9, 2023 by Nathaniel Darnell in conventions

We have a table at the Vendor Hall at the GA GOP State convention this weekend. If you’re in Columbus, please come visit us at our GRA table at the Vendor Hall!

352976810 643891277778107 1712379425171950450 N

353002438 643891311111437 8913876008335063416 N

Virtual Town Hall on the Accountability Rule

June 7, 2023 by Georgia Republican Assembly in events

Monday evening, attorney & GRA President Alex Johnson held a Virtual Town Hall about his proposed Accountability Rule which has been submitted for business at the GA GOP State Convention in Columbus. The Town Hall was conduct over Zoom and delegates, alternates, and GRA members from across the state logged into hear him explain the rule and answer their questions. GRA NFRA Director Nathaniel Darnell served as moderator. The Town Hall went for nearly two hours, covering a lot of ground. You can watch it in its entirety now on our YouTube channel here:

Etowah RA Chapter Hosts Event with VoterGA

June 6, 2023 by Nathaniel Darnell in events

Last night the Etowah Republican Assembly chapter hosted their first big event, the Election Integrity Summit. Awesome speakers, great turn out, great food, and a wealth of information! A special thank you to Garland Favorito of VoterGa who served as the keynote speaker! It was also nice of Voice of Rural America and Turning Point Action to participate. A big thank you to our awesome local team and to everyone who attended!

All Blog Posts

The Accountability Rule Goes Local

GRA-Endorsed Winners