The Fulton County Board of Commissioners unanimously approved the reappointment of Mary C. Cooney as the chairperson of the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections at its June 19 meeting.
Cooney was nominated by Commission Chairman Robb Pitts. She has served since 2013, and will continue to until June 30, 2021, a press release announced.
“Ms. Cooney is the ideal person to ensure that our election process continues to improve and that each voter’s vote is counted,” Pitts said in the release. “I believe the citizens of Fulton County greatly benefit from her leadership, knowledge and fairness.”
Cooney is previously served as Deputy City Attorney for the city of Atlanta. She is a graduate of Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism and the Emory University School of Law.
The Board of Commissioners’ reappointment comes after the passage of HB 656 in 2019 which revised the manner of appointment of the chairperson of the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections. The chair is now nominated and approved by the Board of Commissioners, instead of being first nominated by the county’s state legislative delegation.
In 2018, former Atlanta mayoral candidate and now Buckhead Council of Neighborhoods chair Mary Norwood accepted a bungled behind-the-scenes nomination to chair the board. Norwood’s nomination came in a legislative delegation meeting hurriedly called by state Sen. John Albers (R-Roswell) during a special session of the General Assembly. While Fulton’s state senators voted to appoint Norwood, the state representatives did not amid process concerns from Democratic members.