Georgia GOP vice chair booted for illegally voting 9 times as a convicted felon

Brian K. Pritchard is no longer the vice chairman of the Georgia Republican Party after a large majority of his fellow Republicans voted to remove him from his position this week.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that Pritchard was removed from his role as the party's number two official after a whopping 86% of the Georgia GOP's state committee supported a motion to oust him.

The vote to officially remove Pritchard came after he refused to step down amid revelations that he voted on nine separate occasions despite a prior felony conviction.

"Today’s vote demonstrates how serious we take election integrity," Georgia GOP chair Josh McKoon said. "We look forward to getting back to the business of the Georgia Republican Party."

READ MORE: Rift within Georgia GOP intensifies as vice chair refuses to resign for voting illegally

A judge previously issued an administrative ruling that Pritchard had voted illegally on nine separate occasions since 2008 while on probation for felony check forgery. Pritchard, who was elected as vice chairman of the Georgia GOP in 2023, maintained that he did nothing wrong according to current bylaws.

"I haven’t broken the rules, I didn’t mislead the leadership," Pritchard said in April. "If they felt something needed to be done, they haven’t let me know."

McKoon complained that Pritchard's refusal to resign from his leadership position distracted from the party's top two objectives: Re-electing former President Donald Trump in 2024, and torpedoing Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis' prosecution of the ex-president, which he called "evil." McKoon's calls for Pritchard to step down were echoed by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Georgia), who said Republicans in the Peach State "should be the leading voice on securing our elections."

"“It is unacceptable for our party to have a man in leadership who has repeatedly committed voter fraud himself," Greene said of Pritchard.

READ MORE: Trump's win in Georgia's primary exposed what may he his fatal flaw in must-win swing state

Pritchard was initially convicted of a felony in 1996, when he was found to have deposited approximately $38,000 in bad checks while running a construction business in Pennsylvania. The Journal-Constitution reported that in 1999, Pritchard testified that he believed his full sentence had been served and that he could once again vote legally. However, prosecutors countered that his sentence was still in place since it had been extended through 2011.

Republicans have consistently been the loudest voices on the topic of voter fraud, though they are often caught committing it in various jurisdictions. Earlier this year, the wife of an Iowa Republican county supervisor who ran for Congress was found guilty on 52 counts of voter fraud. And of course, Republican officials in multiple states have been indicted for submitting false documents to authorities of states President Joe Biden won in 2020, trying to fraudulently claim themselves as their states' respective presidential electors.

Meanwhile, House Speaker Mike Johnson is beating the drum of "non-citizen voting," which experts have found to be virtually nonexistent. The Associated Press reported that instances of undocumented immigrants casting ballots is "extremely rare," and nowhere near common enough to have a measurable impact on any election.