State Board of Elections Crosses the Jordan

Today, the State Board of Elections has referred the case of Richard Jordan to the Georgia Attorney General’s Office (case number SEB2022-131) for possible fines based on the violation of O.C.G.A 21-2-569 and 21-2-597, which are criminal statutes. The Attorney General’s office, under its own authority and regardless of any SEB referral, could decide to take further or additional action against Mr. Jordan even if he isn’t prosecuted in Cherokee County. Jordan, a longtime Cherokee GOP activist, 1st Vice Chair of the 6th District Republican Committee, and current President of GRA’s North Metro chapter is accused of disrupting early voting at a Cherokee County early voting location during the 2022 elections.

The alleged incident occurred on June 21, 2022 during early voting for the 2022 primary runoff. According to a letter submitted by Ann Brumbaugh, attorney for the Cherokee County Board of Elections and Registration, to the Cherokee County District Attorney, Shannon Wallace and Solicitor General Todd Hayes recommending Jordan’s prosecution, “Mr. Jordan prevented the poll workers from ‘perform[ing] [their] duties…because of his intimidating manner’; left them ‘upset and shaking’; prevented them from ‘process[ing] votes at the computer’; and ‘agitat[ed] and distract[ed]…workers and voters.'”

The poll workers called police who confronted Jordan. The incident was recorded on police body cam video and can be viewed below.

It should come as no surprise that Richard Jordan serves as one of the leaders of the Georgia Republican Assembly (GRA), an organization that constantly promotes itself as “the Republican Wing of the Republican Party.”

Jordan himself has proposed that under his leadership, that the North Metro GRA Chapter, “serve as the ‘Conscience of the Republican Party’.”

The GRA has a long and storied history of promoting some of the worse elements of so called “Republicans” into leadership positions of both their organization and state politics as well. Jordan joins the likes of Nathaniel Darnell, Colton Moore, Brant Frost, and others who have actively worked to drive a wedge between the grassroots of the Georgia Republican Party and Republican elected officials.

Jordan’s actions have been defended in the name of “election integrity,” but illustrate more what seems to be an increasing willingness by those who feel justified in their convictions to take the law into their own hands.

On September 25, WSB reported on an incident where a woman’s car was vandalized in Gwinnett County. The accused vandal, James Michael Fay, scratched her car with a knife because she was parked in a handicapped spot and he did not see the placard hanging from her rear view mirror. When WSB reporter Matt Johnson asked Fay, “Do you think that [not seeing the placard] gave you the right to damage her car?”

Fay responded, “If she was parked illegally, then yes.”

Whether it is the crimes that Jordan has been alleged to commit, or the indictments in Coffee County, or Fay and his belief that he has the right to repay a potential crime with a crime of his own, it seems law and order are being replaced too often with vigilante form of justice that is celebrated by the so called “Republican wing of the Republican Party.”

The one area the GRA certainly isn’t willing to police is itself.

EDITOR’S NOTE: This article was updated in 10/5 to clarify the SBOE’s role in referring the case.