ATLANTA, Ga. — Former judge Penny Brown Reynolds won Georgia’s race for secretary of state on Tuesday, defeating Republican state Rep. Tim Fleming and becoming the first Democrat to run the state’s elections office in close to 20 years.
Brown Reynolds, who once sat on the Fulton County State Court bench, held a lead of about 11 points when the race was called Tuesday night. She will be the state’s 30th secretary of state and the first Black woman elected to the post, succeeding Republican Brad Raffensperger, who left the office to seek the GOP nomination for governor.
The last Democrat in the job was Cathy Cox, who was defeated by Republican Karen Handel in 2006.
The new secretary will take office in the middle of a fight over how Georgia counts its votes. The state’s touch-screen machines print a paper ballot with a list of choices that voters can read and a QR code that scanners tally. A 2024 law banned using those codes for the official count, and that deadline was later pushed to January 2027. A legislative committee must recommend a replacement by Jan. 31, 2027, so a new system can be in place for the 2028 elections, and the secretary of state’s office will run whatever lawmakers pick.
During the campaign, Brown Reynolds said she was open to either paper ballots or machines as long as the system leaves a verifiable paper record and a clear chain of custody. She also called for more early voting locations and easier access to absentee ballots.
The office does more than run elections. It also handles business licensing, professional regulation and financial filings, and Brown Reynolds has proposed a new division to train Georgians and businesses on what the law requires.
Her resume includes work as former Gov. Roy Barnes’s executive counsel and, starting in 2022, a federal civil rights role in the Biden administration’s Agriculture Department.
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