ATLANTA — A Georgia appeals court ruled on Friday that the state’s largest county doesn’t have to appoint two Republican nominees to the county election board, a decision that could tamp down GOP challenges to how elections are administered in predominantly Democratic areas.

The state Court of Appeals found that while elected leaders of Fulton County must appoint two county election board members from nominees provided by the county Republican Party, county commissioners have the freedom to reject names and ask for other choices.

The Democratic majority on the Fulton County Commission voted last year to reject Republican nominees Julie Adams and Jason Frazier, saying their actions made them unsuitable to serve. The county Republican Party sued, and a judge ordered the commissioners to vote to approve the Adams and Frazier, finding the board in contempt after they refused. Friday’s ruling means the county won’t have to pay a contempt fine of $10,000 a day that had been stayed pending appeal.

In a unanimous opinion by a three-judge panel, Presiding Judge Anne Barnes wrote that commissioners are required to choose from a list of Republican nominees, but “were acting within their own lawful and discretionary authority when they declined to seat” the party’s choices. She wrote that the solution is for the Republican Party to submit new nominees.

Republicans could appeal to the state Supreme Court, but justices don’t have to take the case. A lawyer for the county Republican Party didn’t immediately respond to an email asking if an appeal is planned.

The five-person county election board includes a chair selected by commissioners and two nominees each from the county Republican and Democratic parties who are then appointed by the commissioners. To be eligible, nominees must live in Fulton County, be registered to vote and cannot hold or be candidates for public office.

Adams has served on the election board since February 2024. She abstained from certifying primary election results last year and unsuccessfully sued the election board seeking a ruling saying county officials can refuse to certify elections. Frazier has formally challenged the eligibility of thousands of Fulton County voters. Both are important figures in a Republican coalition that continues to challenge the validity of Donald Trump’s 2020 loss in Georgia and press for changes in how elections are conducted.

Adams’ term expired in June. But she remains on the election board until she or a replacement is appointed to fill her seat. The other Republican seat remains vacant.

Frazier said the ruling gives too much latitude for Democratic commissioners to force Republicans to appoint nominees that Democrats like.

“If this holds, the Dems on the Fulton County Board of Commissioners can essentially pick their Dem Board of Elections Members, The Chair AND THE REPUBLICANS!!!!!!!!” Frazier wrote on social media.

Fulton County Commissioner Dana Barrett, a Democrat who cites her vote against seating Adams and Frazier in her run for Georgia secretary of state this year, hailed the ruling against seating the “MAGA extremists.”

“The contempt charges, the fines, the threats of jail time — all overturned by today’s ruling,” Barrett said in a statement. “This is a huge win for Georgia voters and a win for free, fair, and secure elections.”

Most election boards across Georgia are appointed in the same way as Fulton County, and Friday’s ruling could let county commissions broadly reject political party nominees they disagree with. In metro Atlanta, that could mean Democratic county commissioners will be able to reject Republican activists who contend Democratic counties aren’t conducting elections properly, but it could also diminish Democrats’ ability to be represented on election boards in Republican areas of the state.

A 2018 state Supreme Court ruling had already weakened the ability of parties to automatically place nominees on election boards.

In 2024, Cherokee County, a heavily Republican Atlanta suburb, considered appointing only one Democrat to the county’s five-member election board. Rejecting that, commissioners then chose a Democrat who was unknown to county Democratic Party leaders, instead of the party’s nominee.

Florida Georgia Line is back — at least for one night.

Tyler Hubbard and Brian Kelley shocked fans Thursday night when the duo reunited onstage for the first time since they split in 2022.

The surprise moment went down at Broken Bow Records’ annual late-night bash during Country Radio Seminar in Nashville.

The pair performed “You Make It Easy,” the hit they co-wrote with Morgan Wallen and Jordan Schmidt that Jason Aldean took all the way to No. 1 in 2018. Aldean was being honored at the event.

At one point onstage, Hubbard referred to Kelley as his “brother,” a telling sign that the duo may finally be on better terms after years of speculation about their relationship.

A 31-year-old Georgia woman has been charged with murder by police who say she took pills to induce an illegal abortion.

If state prosecutors decide to move forward with the murder charge brought by local police against Alexia Moore, her case would be one of the first instances of a woman being charged for terminating a pregnancy in Georgia since it passed a 2019 law banning most abortions.

The arrest warrant charging Moore with murder uses language that echoes the law, saying police determined that Moore had been pregnant beyond six weeks “based on the medical staff’s knowledge that the baby had a beating heart and was struggling to breathe”.

“No one should be criminalized for having an abortion,” Dana Sussman, senior vice-president of the advocacy group Pregnancy Justice said in a statement, calling Moore’s case “an unprecedented murder charge for an alleged abortion”.

Court records say Moore arrived at a hospital on 30 December complaining of abdominal pain. She told medical workers that she had taken misoprostol, a drug used in medication abortions, and the opioid painkiller oxycodone, according to an arrest warrant obtained by police in Kingsland, about 100 miles (160km) south of Savannah.

The fetus survived for about an hour after being delivered at the hospital, the warrant says. The police investigator obtaining the warrant wrote that Moore told the nursing staff: “I know my infant is suffering, because I am the one who did the abortion. I want her to die.”

Georgia bans abortion after embryonic cardiac activity can be detected. That’s generally at about six weeks’ gestation – before many women know they’re pregnant.

Moore has been jailed in coastal Camden county since 4 March on charges of murder and illegal drug possession, according to online jail records.

Moore’s mother said she had no immediate comment when reached by phone on Thursday. A spokesperson for the Georgia Public Defender Council confirmed that one of its attorneys is representing Moore but made no further comment.

Court records show Moore’s attorney has filed legal motions seeking bond and a speedy trial. A court hearing was scheduled for Monday.

Ultimately, the decision on whether to prosecute Moore for murder will be left to Keith Higgins, the district attorney for the Brunswick judicial circuit, who would first have to obtain an indictment from a grand jury. Higgins did not immediately return phone and email messages.

The drugs misoprostol and mifepristone together are approved for terminating pregnancies during the first 10 weeks of gestation by the US Food and Drug Administration. Misoprostol can also be used alone if mifepristone is not available. It’s also used off-label for abortion in the second trimester.