Fulton County: Democratic stronghold in battleground Georgia

Voters in Atlanta and nearby suburbs forming Fulton County turned out for President Joe Biden by 73 percent in 2020 –- but it became a focus of Republican Donald Trump’s efforts to overturn his election loss.

The southern US state of Georgia was once reliably Republican but it has moved leftwards and remains a battleground with Democrats winning over wealthier, well-educated and increasingly diverse communities around Atlanta.

Here are five facts about Fulton County:

Populous, diverse

With 1.1 million people, Fulton County is the most populous in Georgia and forms around 10 percent of the Peach State’s population.

The county has swung consistently Democratic in recent elections despite being in a traditionally Republican state.

It continues to see fast growth, adding 17,400 more inhabitants between April 2023 and 2024, according to the Atlanta Regional Commission.

The county also has a larger proportion of minority residents. It is about 43 percent Black or African American, 39 percent white and around eight percent Asian, according to 2020 census data.

Voting problems

The county, however, has been noticeably hit by voting challenges, with long wait times at polling locations and reports that some voters did not receive absentee ballots in the 2020 primary election.

The problems caught national attention as they disproportionately affected Black residents.

“There is a more hopeful vibe, I believe, around the elections coming up in November. But for Black voters, there is always a sense of caution,” said Wanda Mosley, deputy policy director at Black Voters Matter Fund.

“Historically, the wait times to vote in Black communities have been longer,” she told AFP.

There are also fewer people wanting to sign up as election workers after the bruising 2020 election, she added.

Two Fulton County election workers faced threats and harassment after false accusations of election fraud that year.

Election probe

Trump, the first Republican presidential candidate to lose Georgia in nearly three decades, claimed foul play cost him the state.

But several recounts and numerous lawsuits failed to turn up any evidence of significant voter fraud anywhere in the country.

Georgia prosecutors charged Trump and 18 co-defendants last year for their alleged involvement in a plot to overturn the 2020 election outcome — with Fulton County district attorney Fani Willis leading the probe.

In a January 2021 phone call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Trump infamously pressured election officials to “find” the 11,780 votes that would reverse his defeat to Biden in the state.

Independent monitor

This year, Fulton County green-lit a plan to conduct the general election under an independent monitor.

This makes it the second straight presidential election in which it is doing so.

The state election board earlier voted to appoint a monitor this year, amid allegations of double-scanning some ballots in a 2020 election recount.

The monitoring team is expected to ensure the county is following proper laws and regulations in administering the election, and it should issue a report by year-end.

Fraud claims

After 2020, an independent monitor told US media that although election processes in Fulton County were found to be poorly managed, he did not find evidence of fraud or dishonesty.

State-appointed monitor Carter Jones said he observed sloppy practices and poor management.

But he saw no evidence of “any dishonesty, fraud or intentional malfeasance,” according to The Washington Post.