ATLANTA — Today, a coalition of civil rights and voting rights organizations called for the resignation of Gwinnett Board of Registrations and Elections chairwoman Alice O’Lenick following her outrageous, threatening, and partisan comments about state election laws. Calling herself “a dog with a bone” O’Lenick demanded that state lawmakers change election laws to give Republicans “a shot at winning.”
Groups calling for O’Lenick’s resignation include:
Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta
AVL Action
Fair Fight Action
GALEO Impact Fund, Inc.
Georgia AFL-CIO
Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda
Georgia Equality
Georgia State AFL-CIO
Georgia WAND
I-PAC
The Lincoln Project
NARAL Pro-Choice Georgia
New Georgia Project Action Fund
Poder Latinx
#VOTEPROCHOICE
Voto Latino
Working Families Party
“Alice O’Lenick isn’t even trying to hide her bias against Democratic voters and voters of color in Gwinnett County,” the organizations said in a statement. “She has made clear that her only motivation in her position is pure partisanship, engaging openly in rhetoric that is more suited for a political party hack than an elections official. County election board members and chairs should celebrate high voter turnout, regardless of outcome, not advocate laws that will benefit one party over the other. Threatening legislators by demanding that they follow her anti-voting agenda while echoing talking points of conspiracy theorists about voting by mail is unbecoming of her position. She must resign.”
O’Lenick also has a history of racist social media posts.
“I’m like a dog with a bone. I will not let [state lawmakers] end this session without changing some of these laws,” O’Lenick said, quoted by the Gwinnett Daily Post. “…they’ve got to change the major parts of [election laws] so that [Republicans] at least have a shot at winning.” O’Lenick went on to call for an elimination of drop boxes and no-excuse absentee voting, which were popular among Gwinnett voters.
Gwinnett is Georgia’s second-most populous county. The Atlanta Journal Constitution referred to Gwinnett County as “ground zero in the fight over alleged voter suppression in Georgia.” The county, with rapidly growing communities of color, has trended Democratic in recent years. Gwinnett has been called the most diverse county in the Southeastern United States.