The fight between the Georgia Election Board and Fulton County took dramatic twists Tuesday, with the county suing the state over an attempt to install election skeptics as monitors and the board voting to subpoena the county’s records from the 2020 presidential election.
The dispute centers on the county’s refusal to accept election monitors favored by the board’s Republican majority, including a former Pennsylvania state representative who opposed counting his state’s electoral votes for Democrat Joe Biden and a subcontractor in the Cyber Ninjas audit of the 2020 presidential election in Maricopa County, Arizona.
Fulton has already appointed a team to monitor its performance in the November election to resolve allegations of miscounts in a recount of the 2020 election. The board reprimanded Fulton for double-scanning about 3,000 ballots in the recount. Trump gained 939 net votes against Biden in the recount.
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
Credit: Hyosub Shin/AJC
But Republican members of the state board now want to appoint their own monitors to oversee Fulton’s operations, objecting to the county’s team. Fulton hired monitors led by Ryan Germany, former general counsel to Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger who oversaw a performance review of the county that recommended against a state takeover of its elections management.
Germany “cataloged a number of deficiencies with Fulton County, their conduct of elections and their record storage and on and on, and then essentially gave them a pass — you know, a pat on the back,” State Election Board member Janice Johnston said. “I saw very little in an actual, real recommendations for procedures and process changes, although I do think Fulton improved actually.”
The Fulton election board’s lawsuit filed Monday claims the state board has no legal authority to appoint its own monitors.
“The SEB has repeatedly provided conflicting information and failed to take action related to monitors,” Fulton Election Board Chair Sherri Allen said. “With less than 30 days until the Nov. 5 general election, the Fulton County Board of Registration & Elections has filed a petition for declaratory and injunctive relief in order to seek clarification from the court about responsibilities for monitors for the upcoming election.”
The divided State Election Board responded Tuesday with a subpoena for a slew of county records from the 2020 election. The board members also subpoenaed the Fulton board to appear at an upcoming meeting to address their concerns.
Fulton’s monitors are already hard at work to ensure compliance with election laws and processes, Germany said.
“We plan to continue that work to support the transparency of the election process. Our focus will remain on doing the job that we have been retained to do and doing it to the best of our abilities,” Germany said.
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
The escalating legal battle comes as the state board’s new Republican majority continues to assert its power. In recent months the majority has approved a series of rules governing the conduct of this year’s election that have prompted several lawsuits that say the board has exceeded its legal authority.
This week’s actions stem from long-running scrutiny of Fulton County’s performance in the 2020 election.
State investigations have found errors during the county’s manual audit and machine recount of the previous presidential election, but those mistakes didn’t change the outcome in Fulton County, where Biden received 73% of the vote.
According to the lawsuit filed in Fulton County Superior Court, Johnston threatened to “disavow” the county if it did not accept monitors suggested by the board.
In a subsequent email, Johnston proposed eight monitors be added to Germany’s team.
They include former Pennsylvania state Rep. Frank Ryan, who asked his state’s congressional delegation not to recognize its electors in December 2020, and Heather Honey, a subcontractor in the Cyber Ninjas audit of the 2020 presidential election in Maricopa County, Arizona.
Honey is also responsible for the false claim, repeated by Trump, that there were “205,000 more votes than you had voters” in Pennsylvania.
State Election Board member Janelle King, a Republican appointed by Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns, blamed Fulton for its unwillingness to accept the state board’s monitors.
“Had they worked with us, with the monitoring team, we wouldn’t be here,” King said. “So this is not the board wanting to put pressure on any county, but if you’re not going to listen and you’re not going to be responsive, if you’re not going to do what you say you’re going to do, then we have to.”
Democratic Party board member Sara Tindall Ghazal objected to the State Election Board’s effort to impose its own monitoring team.
“We have no legal standing to force this, to force a monitoring team,” Ghazal said. “It’s one-way — our insistence that Fulton accept what we say, and that is the only thing that you’re trying to have enforced.”
The board will decide on further action depending on how Fulton responds to its subpoenas, Johnston said.
The board is considering meeting again in late October, days before the Nov. 5 election.
Correction: Frank Ryan was a Pennsylvania state representative, not a member of the U.S. House of Representatives.
