Judge rules Georgia Republican Party vice chairman voted illegally

ATLANTA — A judge ruled Wednesday that the Georgia Republican Party’s first vice chairman, Brian K. Pritchard, violated state election laws when he voted nine times while serving probation for a felony check forgery sentence.

Pritchard, a conservative talk show host, must pay a $5,000 fine and receive a public reprimand from the State Election Board, according to the decision by Administrative Law Judge Lisa Boggs.

Pritchard has previously alleged the 2020 presidential election was fraudulent on his show, but now he has been found to have voted illegally. Recounts, court cases and investigations over the last three and a half years have consistently debunked fraud claims and upheld the 2020 election results.

Prichard has said he didn’t do anything wrong and thought he had completed his probation before voting in Georgia. But that didn’t convince the judge in the case.

“The court does not find the respondent’s explanations credible or convincing,” Boggs wrote in her 25-page decision. “At the very least, even if the court accepts he did not know about his felony sentences, the record before this court demonstrates that he should have known.”

Pritchard declined to comment on the judge’s ruling.

Pritchard testified in February that he believed his felony sentence ended in 1999, but attorneys for the state showed evidence that his probation had been repeatedly revoked and extended until 2011. Georgia law prohibits felons from voting until they’ve completed their sentences.

Pritchard registered to vote in Georgia in 2008 and cast ballots in nine elections before his probation was over, according to election records presented in court.

“I felt it ended,” Pritchard said after the court hearing. “Do you think the first time I voted I said, ‘Oh, I got away with it. Let’s do it eight more times?’”

Pritchard pleaded guilty in 1996 to forgery and theft charges involving $38,000 worth of checks that he deposited while working on a construction job, according to court records from Alleghany County, Pennsylvania.

Pritchard acknowledged that he endorsed and deposited a check made out with someone else’s name but said he didn’t profit and the construction companies involved were repaid.

His probation initially lasted three years, but Pennsylvania judges repeatedly extended it until 2011 for allegedly failing to pay restitution, court records showed. Pritchard maintained that he didn’t owe money and he thought that case was resolved.

Attorneys for the state said in court that Pritchard knew he was still serving his sentence because records show he appeared in Pennsylvania court for probation revocation hearings in 1999, 2002 and 2004. Pritchard denied that he was present in court in 2002 or 2004.

“When he came to Georgia, he was aware that he was registering to vote illegally. He knew when he went in all nine times and signed that voter certificate, he was voting illegally,” said Senior Assistant Attorney General Russell Willard during closing arguments in February.

The judge fined Pritchard $500 for each of the nine times he voted illegally, plus another $500 for his illegal voter registration. Pritchard can appeal the decision.

Before becoming a Republican Party official, Pritchard ran unsuccessfully last year for the state House seat that Speaker David Ralston held before he died in 2022.