Election workers fired for allegedly shredding voter registration applications

Two Fulton election workers have been fired after they were accused of shredding hundreds of voter registration applications, which prompted Georgia’s secretary of state to call on the federal government to investigate the county's operations.

Why it matters: The latest saga out of Georgia’s most populous county comes months after the State Board of Elections appointed a panel to review the county’s elections process, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports.

• Georgia Republicans over the summer also began pushing for the state to take over Fulton’s elections division, the AJC adds.

Driving the news: The applications were received by the Registration and Elections Office within the last couple of weeks, and according to the county, the employees possibly checked out the applications for processing.

• However, instead of processing the applications, the employees shredded some of the documents, the county said.
• Fulton County spokesperson Jessica Corbitt said about 300 registration applications were destroyed.
• Other employees reported their alleged actions Friday and they were fired the same day, the county said.

Fulton elections director Richard Barron also referred the employees' actions to the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office of Investigations.

What they are saying: Fulton County Commission Chairman Robb Pitts also reported the case to District Attorney Fani Willis.

• “Elections are the most important function of our government,” Pitts said in a prepared statement. “We have committed to transparency and integrity.”

The other side: Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Monday called on the U.S. Justice Department to investigate Fulton County following news of the employees’ alleged actions.

Raffensperger, who has joined the chorus of Republicans criticizing Fulton County for its handling of the 2020 primary and general election, said the DOJ needs to examine “how their leadership disenfranchises Fulton voters through incompetence and malfeasance.”

• “The voters of Georgia are sick of Fulton County’s failures,” he said in a statement.