͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏ ͏

Forwarded this email? Subscribe here for more

Five Questions With Fulton County, Georgia, Commissioners Mo Ivory and Dana Barrett

The attack on our voting rights is upon us

Joyce Vance

Sep 5

∙

Preview

READ IN APP

Tonight we’re going to dig deep into the weeds of local politics to understand how serious and sustained the attacks on elections are in advance of 2026 and 2028. The Fulton County situation has legs that extend well beyond Georgia.

But before we get started, the message here isn’t that we should lose faith in our ability to hold free and fair elections or confidence in the elections themselves. It’s that we need to create a culture of opposition and resistance to voter suppression, whatever form it takes. We do that by studying these situations and understanding that because all elections are local, we need to understand individual situations like this one in Fulton County to get there.

We are joined by two guests tonight. Mo Ivory was elected to the Fulton County Commission in 2024. She is an attorney and civic leader who brings decades of legal, media, and advocacy experience to public service in Georgia. Dana Barrett was elected to the Commission in 2022. She is a former tech executive and a small business owner and TV and radio host.

In Fulton County, Georgia, the state’s largest and most Democratic county, Republican Party officials are trying to force two far-right election conspiracy theorists onto the county election board. Each political party nominates two people to serve on the board. Then, the Board of County Commissioners votes to confirm and appoint them, along with an election board chair.

This go-round, the Fulton County GOP, backed by the RNC, has been pressuring the Fulton County Board of Commissioners to install their picks, Julie Adams and Jason Frazier, to whom Democrats object because of documented histories of election denialism and alignment with groups that openly support voter suppression. When commissioners rejected the nominees, the GOP sued. Then they asked a judge to jail the commissioners.

The judge rejected the request, but held the Board in contempt and ordered the GOP nominees to be appointed. Because the Board’s appeal is still pending, this week they tabled their vote on the nominees until the appellate court rules.

This isn’t just a local fight. It’s a test case for a broader national strategy to use the courts and intimidation to take over the machinery of election administration. As 2026 approaches, the tactics used in Georgia could be replicated in counties across the country.

“Five Questions” is the one Civil Discourse column that is exclusively for paid subscribers, my way of thanking them for their support for the newsletter. Your paid subscriptions help me devote the time and resources necessary to the newsletter. The rest of the columns that make up Civil Discourse are available to everyone—knowledge is power, and we all need as much of that as possible right now! Thank you for being here and for caring about the future of our democracy.

Read on to learn about what’s happening in Fulton County and why it will end up mattering for all of us.