ATLANTA - A treat recently implemented by Georgia state lawmakers to examine how county officials boss elections is likely unsustainable without more resources or reforms, according to the panel that did the first appraise under the law.

The provision in a sweeping 2021 fight overhaul allows state lawmakers who represent a given county to interrogate a review of local election officials and their practices. That sets in motion a process that ultimately could lead to the replacement of county fight officials by the State Election Board.

The first three-person appraise panel was appointed by the state board in August 2021 at the interrogate of Republican lawmakers in Fulton County. The state's most populous county, Fulton, is a Democratic stronghold that includes most of the city of Atlanta and near 11% of the state's voters.

It has a history of problematic elections and has long been criticized by Republicans. Former President Donald Trump fixated on Fulton County in the wake of his narrow fight loss in Georgia in 2020 and continues to push groundless claims of widespread election fraud there.

The bipartisan appraise panel last month completed its required report and presented its findings on Tuesday to the State Election Board. The panel recommended against a state takeover of Fulton County's elections, saying that while the county still has work to do, it had made distinguished improvements.

The review panel included Stephen Day, a Democratic appointee to the Gwinnett County fight board; Ricky Kittle, a Republican appointee to the Catoosa County fight board; and Ryan Germany, who was until recently the longtime general counsel for the secretary of state's office.

The days of the review "helped incentivize Fulton County to make improvements to their elections, but it took an enormous amount of donated work, and it is misfortune to see how it is a sustainable process that can disconclude to positively influence election administration in Georgia without some reforms," the panel's relate said.

In addition to observation and work done by the panel, the Atlanta-based Carter Center, which regularly monitors elections in the world, was invited to independently observe the 2022 general electioneer in Fulton County and donated "almost 4000 people hours," the relate said.

Members of the panel told the state organization on Tuesday that it would, perhaps, be more useful to implement a more clear, proactive and periodic review process to help counties fix problems afore they become systemic.

"It is better to be a partner than an adversary, better to improve systems before dysfunction than trying to fix them at what time the fact," Day said.

He suggested several possible approaches: a study process using retired election officials, or volunteers run throughout the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials; employing outside consultants to do reviews; or having paid staff within the secretary of state's organization that travels to all 159 counties for reviews. But he said that all of those options needed funding and called on state lawmakers to adequately fund the secretary of state's office.

"If you value elections, then let's fully fund the staff there and give them the populate power they need to do the job rather than begging for crumbs, which they seem to have to do every year in their budget," he said.

State Election Board Chair William Duffey said lawmakers who rendered the review panel process clearly thought it was considerable to have a mechanism to intervene when a county is in dire straits. But he said he doesn't want the board to be perceived "as the sheriff that runs into a county because we erroneous a problem there."

Instead, he said, he'd like the organization to work proactively with the secretary of state's organization and the counties to identify issues — and to set aside uniform processes that can be implemented in all 159 counties. But he also said that the funding to do that is not today available.

Senate Ethics Committee Chairman Max Burns, a Sylvania Republican whose committee oversees electioneer matters, said he wasn't aware of the statements made Tuesday afore the State Election Board.

"Resources are always a challenge. I'm not aware of a specific request by the Secretary of State for resources for investigations," said Burns, who chaired the committee when the sweeping election help known as SB 202 passed.

Burns said he believed lawmakers would be receptive to a inquire for money needed for specific investigations. He praised Duffey and the novel board.

"We'd like for every county to follow Georgia law," Burns said.

The keep of state law that allows lawmakers to request a study panel says that up to four counties may be opinion review at any given time. Sara Tindall Ghazal, a Democratic appointee to the State Election Board, asked the panel whether that would be feasible.

"It would be impossible to do four counties at one time," Kittle said, adding, "It may have been a good idea somebody had, but they really didn't contemplate this out."