In a bombshell move, the chair of Fulton County's Board of Registration & Elections is resigning just months before Georgia voters go to the polls. 

Fox 5 in Atlanta reported that Cathy Woolard sent a letter to Fulton County Board of Commissioners announcing her resignation last week and explained it will take effect on July 25.

Chair praises "excellent work" by election department

"It's been a pleasure serving as interim BRE chair at Fulton County while we executed the recent primary and primary election runoff," Woolard said in a statement to Fox 5.

"Despite all the noise you hear, the Fulton County election department does excellent work in one of the largest election operations in the country," the outgoing chair insisted.

"The new board chair will have challenges working through the headwinds of politics, but I have no doubt they will maintain the progress made under the leadership of Director Nadine Williams," she added.

Fox 5 noted that Woolard initially served as Board of Registration & Elections chair from 2021 until 2023 but took the position again after her replacement resigned in April.

County commission calls Woolard's move "irresponsible"

Woolard's decision to resign was not well received by some in local government, including Fulton County Commissioner Dana Barrett.

"The feedback I'm hearing from my community is that this was a pretty irresponsible move on the part of Chair Woolard," Barrett said in a statement to the news station.

"Because we're coming up on a very important presidential election and because Fulton County was so under scrutiny in the last election, we really want to have the best team in place," she added.

"We knew that she wanted to be an interim chair, but my understanding was that she was willing to stay through the general election—if necessary," Barrett said.

State Election Board criticized ballot procedures in Fulton County

Voting in Fulton County has long been a source of controversy, with former President Donald Trump alleging that irregularities there helped cost him the 2020 election.

According to The Federalist, the State Election Board (SEB) criticized Fulton County at a hearing in May for double scanning more than 3,000 ballots in 2020.

“Does the investigation confirm that there are missing ballot images?”

“Yes.”

Case closed. No cover up operation can conceal the fact that Fulton County did not have the votes it claimed it had. The recount could not replicate the original results.

Oh, and it’s “news” to… pic.twitter.com/2HxZ4oMiNo

— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) May 7, 2024

What's more, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger's office acknowledged that it is unable to confirm just how many of the double scanned ballots were also counted twice.