Brian Pritchard, first vice chairman of the Georgia Republican Celebration, illegally voted 9 occasions whereas on felony probation, a choose dominated Wednesday.
The Atlanta Journal-Structure reported Pritchard was discovered responsible of violating Georgia election regulation by voting whereas serving a felony probation sentence, which is unlawful within the state. The choose dominated that Pritchard should pay a $5,000 fantastic and be publicly reprimanded by the Georgia State Election Board for his actions.
Pritchard had been sentenced in Pennsylvania to a few years felony probation beginning in 1996 for test forgery costs, however the probation had been revoked a number of occasions, first in 1999 after he moved to Georgia, then once more in 2002 and 2004, in line with The Washington Publish. A brand new seven-year probation sentence was issued in 2004, throughout which interval Pritchard signed new voter registration types and voted in a number of elections.
Pritchard argued in courtroom that he thought his sentence resulted in 1999, a declare he had posited in a 2022 submit on his web site, FetchYourNews.com.
“The Georgia Secretary of States needs you to imagine that I knowingly voted whereas serving a felony sentence,” Pritchard wrote. “By no means occurred! I did vote each time they mentioned, however by no means illegally.”
On the web site and its companion conservative discuss present, fyntv.com, Pritchard criticized President Joe Biden and questioned the outcomes of the 2020 presidential election, saying in a single video: “They need you to imagine 81 million Individuals voted for this man.”
“The loudest cheers are about election fraud,” Pritchard mentioned elsewhere in the identical video. “I’m simply telling you, look what they’ve executed to us.”
In response to the conviction, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) mentioned Pritchard “should resign instantly or be faraway from workplace” on X, formerly Twitter.
Although the general public reprimand could stymie Pritchard’s profession in Georgia state politics, he may at all times attempt to pursue a second chapter with the 2020 election deniers heading the Republican Nationwide Committee.
