Georgia election board rolls back actions amid lawsuit

The Georgia State Election Board, which has become embroiled in conflict over how the state administers elections, voted Tuesday to redo some of its actions amid a lawsuit accusing it of meeting illegally.

The board voted 5-0 on Tuesday to debate again on Aug. 6 a pair of proposed rules sought by Republicans that three members advanced on July 12, including allowing more poll watchers to view ballot counting and requiring counties to provide the number of ballots received each day during early voting.

American Oversight, a liberal-leaning watchdog group, sued the board over the July 12 meeting where only board members Dr. Janice Johnston, Rick Jeffares and Janelle King were present. Democratic member Sara Tindall Ghazal was missing, as was nonpartisan board chair John Fervier,

The suit alleged the board broke Georgia law dealing with posting notices for a public meeting. It also alleged that at least three board members were required to physically be in the room, invalidating the meeting because Johnston attended remotely.

King had argued it was merely a continuation of the July 9 meeting and was properly noticed.

The board also voted to confirm new rules that it advanced on July 9 when all five members were present. Those measures have already been posted for public comment. They could be finalized by the board on Aug. 19, after a 30-day comment period.

One of those proposed rules would let county election board members review a broad array of materials before certifying election totals. Critics worry board members could refuse to certify until they study all the documents, which could delay finalization of statewide results, especially after some county election board members have refused to certify recent elections.

Other rules would require workers in each polling place to hand-count the number of ballots to make sure the total matches the number of ballots recorded by scanning machines, and require counties to explain discrepancies in vote counts.

During the July 12 meeting, Democrats and liberal voting activists decried the session as illegal.

“There was a weirdly overdramatic and excessive alarm raised — a seemingly coordinated misinformation campaign — followed by apparent media attacks and outrageous and ridiculous threats made to the State Election Board,” Johnston said in a statement Tuesday. She was appointed by the state Republican Party to the board and has led efforts to adopt rules favored by conservatives.

American Oversight’s interim executive director, Chioma Chukwu, called the decision a victory, saying the lawsuit had helped reverse the July 12 actions.

“However, we remain deeply concerned by the board’s decision to promptly revisit these problematic measures — including those coordinated with the state and national GOP — that serve to intimidate election workers and grant partisan advantage to preferred candidates this November,” she said in a statement.

Chukwu was referring to state Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon’s claim that the party helped orchestrate the appointments of a majority of members and to emails that McKoon sent to Jeffares before July 9 with proposed rules and talking points.