Trump-backed election denier sets up unauthorized X account for Georgia election board

One of the Georgia State Election Board members that Donald Trump called out by name has set up a social media account associated with the government agency without the authorization of her colleagues.

An account that purported to be associated with the board appeared Wednesday evening on X, with a biography stating that the body was created in 1959 by the state's General Assembly to oversee elections and protect voter rights, and both of the posts issued so far are signed "Dr. Jan."

"Greetings to all Georgia citizens from a member of the State Election Board!" states the first post by the GAStateElectionBoard account. "The State Election Board is committed to the General Assembly's mission of ensuring that elections in Georgia are free and fair, but also legal, uniform, orderly, honest, and trusted. Thanks, Dr. Jan."

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Lawfare senior editor Anna Bower reached out to board chairman John Fervier, a Republican, to clarify whether the account reflected official communications from the board, and he stated the account was set up by fellow board member Janice Johnston without authorization.

“No authorization came from this Board to set up this account," Fervier told her in a statement. "I am currently researching the situation before any further action is taken."

Johnston, a retired obstetrician from the Atlanta area, voted with two other Republican board members to approve changes to Georgia election rules that give local authorities more power to reject or challenge voting results and which experts from both parties warn could sow misinformation and chaos in November.

"They are a mess," said Georgia Republican Secretary of state Brad Raffensperger, who was infamously pressured by Trump in January 2021 to "find" the missing votes he needed to overtake Joe Biden's winning tally.

The unauthorized account lays out three ground rules in its second and final post so far that don't align with the board's rules as defined on its official website.

"Do it right- 1. Follow the law 2. Provide maximum transparency 3. Require accurate and true results," the GAStateElectionBoard account's post states. "Thanks to candidates, workers, watchers, parties, and of course, the voters. Dr. Jan."

The board's website lists its duties as "promulgating rules and regulation to promote uniformity in election practices, and to promote legality and purity in elections," investigating fraud allegations and reporting them to prosecutors or the attorney general, making recommendations to the General Assembly, developing rules for determining which votes will be counted, educating the public about voting and taking appropriate actions to conduct “fair, legal and orderly elections."

"Since I have now confirmed this is an account being used by an actual member of the State Election Board, I will emphatically state (1) It is absurd for one member to use a social media account in the name of the body. (2) Turning off comments is antithetical to transparency," said Anthony Michael Kreis, a constitutional law professor and political scientist at Georgia State University College of Law.

"The goal of the SEB is to guarantee 'fair, legal and orderly elections,'" Kreis added. "It is not to provide new authority in ultra vires [beyond one's legal power or authority] fashion to local elections officials. It is to provide uniformity of procedures in furtherance of clearly established obligations and educate the public."

Johnston was the only board member to vote in favor of a proposed rule in May to that would have given county election board more authority to delay or reject election results, but a nearly identical rule was approved by her and two others this month after GOP board member Ed Lindsey was pressured to resign and was replaced by conservative media personality Janelle King.

Rick Jeffares, who did not cast a vote in May, joined the conservative majority after hearing testimony from election deniers about Trump's 2020 loss, and Trump praised the trio at an Atlanta rally as “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory," although Johnston was the only one in attendance.