A state board’s vote to change election rules ahead of the hotly contested November presidential showdown has sparked a growing backlash.
On Friday three Republican members of the State Election Board — Rick Jeffares, Janice Johnston and Janelle King — held an impromptu meeting to approve the new rules despite concerns that the hastily called meeting could violate the Georgia Open Meetings Act.
Threatening litigation, the Georgia Democratic Party has called on the election board to admit its actions were improper. An advocacy group also threatened to file a lawsuit. And a Fulton County election official asked Gov. Brian Kemp to remove the three Republicans and the board’s executive director, Mike Coan, who also participated in the meeting.
At a news conference Tuesday, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger — who oversees Georgia elections — declined to comment on the board’s actions. But he’s clearly paying attention.
“They’re a mess, and it’s pretty obvious that they are,” Raffensperger said.
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Credit: Miguel Martinez/AJC
Jeffares, Johnston and Coan did not respond to requests for comment. King referred to statements she made Friday defending the meeting.
In a lengthy social media post, Georgia Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon defended the election board’s actions and dismissed its critics.
“Democrats are upset because after YEARS of being able to direct the course of the State Elections Board we have an election integrity minded majority that wants to address the very real election confidence concerns of many Georgians,” McKoon said.
At Friday’s meeting, the three Republican board members — who criticized the conduct of the 2020 presidential election after Donald Trump lost to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia — said they needed to approve the election rules that day to keep the proposed rules alive. One proposal would expand access to partisan poll watchers during the counting of ballots following an election. Another would require all county election boards to post daily online ballot counts on county websites.
The board must still seek public comment on the proposals before final approval. But it’s unclear whether Friday’s vote was legal.
Kemp’s appointee, Chairman John Fervier, and Democratic appointee Sara Tindall Ghazal did not attend the meeting. Ghazal said the meeting appeared to be deliberately scheduled at a time when they could not attend.
The state attorney general’s office told the board Thursday that the meeting might violate a state law that requires state boards to publish notices of non-emergency meetings at least seven days in advance. Meetings deemed an emergency or a “special circumstance” by the board can be held with less than 24 hours’ notice.
On Friday, King said the meeting was legitimate because notice was announced more than 24 hours in advance. The meeting was announced on a sheet of paper on the Capitol meeting room door — but not in advance on the State Election Board meeting website.
Critics blasted the board vote Friday, and the backlash has continued this week.
In a Monday letter to the board, the left-leaning group American Oversight, which advocates for open government, threatened to file legal action, citing alleged violations of the Georgia law. It said the meeting was not properly convened, the public was not given proper notice of the meeting, the board lacked a quorum because one member participated via videoconference and the proposed rules had not been published on an agenda.
The group gave the election board until Wednesday to “clarify that the sham meeting violated Georgia law and that the rules it purported to adopt are legally null and void.” American Oversight did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.
Also Monday, Fulton County Election Board Chair Cathy Woolard asked Kemp to remove the three state board members and Coan, citing alleged violations of the state ethics code and the open meetings law. Woolard said she filed the complaint in an individual capacity, not on behalf of her board.
In her complaint, Woolard asked Kemp to “investigate this illegal meeting, declare any actions taken during this illegal meeting to be null and void and to remove those members and the executive director participating in this meeting from their respective positions and replace them with SEB members and staff who will adhere to the law at all times.”
A spokesman for Kemp said his office is reviewing the letter and declined to comment further. It’s unclear whether the governor has the authority to remove the election officials.
On Tuesday, the Georgia Democratic Party also objected. In a letter to the three Republican board members, the party declared the meeting was “illegitimate and improper” under state law and threatened to file its own lawsuit.
Matthew Weiss, the Democrats’ deputy general counsel, gave the Republicans until noon Friday to “affirmatively and publicly acknowledge that any actions taken during the July 12 meeting are without legal effect” and to “invalidate the meeting under Georgia law.”
Not everyone was picking sides in the debate. Marilyn Marks, executive director of the Coalition for Good Governance, which seeks to bar Georgia from using its existing touchscreen voting system, said there’s plenty of blame to go around for the board’s dysfunction.
“The board should immediately cease its internal petty conflicts and use this opportunity to reset its course and priorities, a reset that is long overdue,” Marks said.
