Penny Brown Reynolds and Tim Fleming
ATLANTA - The Georgia secretary of state’s office oversees elections, voter registration and election-result certification. It also handles professional licensing and business filings.
Penny Brown Reynolds, Democrat
Background and public service
Brown Reynolds is a former Fulton County judge who served in the U.S. Department of Agriculture during the Biden administration, including work with its civil rights office. She also hosted the syndicated program "Family Court with Judge Penny," which ran for one season. She has not worked in the secretary of state’s office or served in the Legislature, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Priorities and election policy
Brown Reynolds’ campaign lists protecting voting rights, rebuilding public trust in elections, helping small businesses, improving professional licensing and protecting older adults and other vulnerable people from fraud among her priorities.
On voting equipment, she favors machines that generate a paper record. Georgia is expected to adopt a new voting system ahead of the 2028 presidential election, and the secretary of state will certify the system before it is used.
Tim Fleming, Republican
Background and public service
Fleming is a small-business owner from Covington and represents Georgia House District 114. He previously served as deputy secretary of state under Brian Kemp, was Kemp’s chief of staff when Kemp was governor, and served as a Newton County commissioner.
Priorities and election policy
Fleming says he would focus on election security, voter ID, faster professional licensing, reducing red tape for small businesses and improving customer service.
Fleming supports hand-marked paper ballots as Georgia moves toward selecting a new voting system. He has also said he believes there were irregularities in the 2020 election, while the AJC reported that he has not repeated former President Donald Trump’s false claims of widespread election fraud.
Record and scrutiny
Brown Reynolds has criticized Fleming over a 2015 data breach during his time in the secretary of state’s office that exposed personal information for about 6 million voters. An internal investigation attributed the breach to an information technology employee who was later fired, the AJC reported.
SOURCES
- Penny for Georgia campaign website
- Georgia Recorder Penny Brown Reynolds profile
- Georgia midterms will decide who OKs how people vote in a battleground state
- Fleming and Reynolds lock down Secretary of State runoffs
- Fleming for Georgia campaign website
- Lawmaker, ex-TV judge face off in Georgia secretary of state race