Stanley Dunlap, Georgia Recorder

A right-wing Republican state senator was arrested Thursday morning while attempting to enter the House chambers to attend the State of the State address by GOP Gov. Brian Kemp.

Controversial Trenton legislator Colton Moore was handcuffed and removed from the Capitol by state police following an altercation with staff members and law enforcement as Moore made several attempts to enter the House chamber floor for the annual governor’s address.

Georgia state Sen. Colton Moore tried to force his way into the House Chamber for the governor’s State of the State speech before his arrest. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

Moore was banned from entering the House chamber last year by GOP House Speaker Jon Burns after speaking ill of the late House Speaker David Ralston while the Blue Ridge Republican was being posthumously honored in the Senate. Moore took to the well and spoke about allegations that Ralston had used his position as speaker to benefit his law firm.

Calling the comments “some of the vilest that you can make about a good man,” current speaker Burns instructed the House doorkeeper not to allow Moore to set foot in the chamber.

The doorkeeper made good on that Thursday when Moore tried to enter the chamber along with his Senate colleagues for a joint session to hear from the governor.

The doorkeeper asked Moore to step aside and watch the governor’s speech from outside the chamber.

Moore tried to push his way in, but was stopped by the doorkeeper and other staff.

Moore insisted he was legally and constitutionally entitled to enter the chamber, but the doorkeeper disagreed, and so did the multiple Capitol police officers stationed outside the House awaiting Moore’s arrival. Moore had announced on social media earlier his intention to challenge the ban.

After several minutes of pushing and shoving, Moore fell to the ground. After more arguing, officers told Moore he was under arrest, cuffed him and led him away to a squad car.

Moore has been a controversial figure in the Senate. He was previously booted from the GOP caucus after lawmakers said he posted contact information for colleagues to social media and urged people to call them to urge a special session to target Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis for arresting former president, now President-elect Donald Trump.

Majority Leader Chuck Efstration told reporters after the speech that Burns did his duty to maintain order in the House chamber.

“The senator caused a very dangerous situation today with law enforcement, doorkeepers, staff and other individuals that were present,” he said. “I think House members that were standing behind the doors in the chamber were focused on the governor’s State of the State address and the important work to be done this legislative session, and that’s where the focus should be.”

Democrats have been content to watch the intraparty feuding from the sidelines.

“When elephants are fighting, get out of the way,” House Minority Leader Carolyn Hugley, a Columbus Democrat, told reporters afterwards.

It’s not yet clear what charges Moore may face. Georgia law prohibits legislators from being arrested during the General Assembly session, with the exceptions of felony offenses, breach of peace, and treason.

Moore is the third Georgia lawmaker arrested inside the Capitol in the last few years.

U.S. Rep. Nikema Williams, an Atlanta Democrat, was among a group of people arrested in 2018 while protesting the ballot counting in the 2018 governor’s race.

In 2021, state Rep. Park Cannon, an Atlanta Democrat, was arrested on the same charges as Williams for knocking on Kemp’s office doors during the signing of controversial election law overhaul Senate Bill 202.

The charges against Williams and Cannon were dropped by prosecutors later. However, their attorneys argued at a Georgia Supreme Court hearing in May that the laws that were used to arrest them are vague, overly broad, and violate their constitutional rights as free individuals.

In November, the state Supreme Court found the arrests of Cannon and Williams were legal, but advised the Legislature to clarify the types of disruptions that are prohibited under law.

The Georgia State Election Board will hold its first post-election meeting on Monday, where it is set to consider resuming its recent push to change Georgia’s election rules and stir the debate anew about counties review controversial mass voter challenges.

The State Election Board meeting is scheduled to begin Monday morning with a public comment period where people can discuss the board’s wishlist sketched out on a significantly condensed agenda, at least in contrast to marathon-length meetings recently held in a rush to enforce several new electoral rules by the Nov. 5th election.

On Nov. 5, President-elect Donald Trump won the election decisively in Georgia and six other swing states over Democratic nominee Vice President Kamala Harris, an outcome celebrated by Georgia Republicans waging the ongoing legal battle over the recent rulemaking of the State Election Board.

Three members of the board, Janelle King, Janice Johnston and Rick Jeffares, were publicly praised as “pit bulls” for victory at an Atlanta campaign rally by Trump this fall for their efforts to change the game for voters ahead of Georgia’s November election.

On Monday’s Georgia election board agenda are two rule amendment petitions filed by Lucia Frazier of Roswell, which would require each county to make public a list of all eligible voters during and after every election. Frazier wants the state board to mandate that counties post a numbered list of voters no later than five days after every primary, election, or run-off.

The file would include the name of every voter along with their voter ID, precinct, and check-in time and must be available for two years after the election.

“The intent of this petition is to have the State Election Board adopt a rule change to affirm existing Georgia law in that citizens of Georgia have access to all data generated in the process of elections,” Frazier wrote.

In September, Frazier’s husband, Republican activist Jason Frazier, retracted his lawsuit alleging Fulton County election officials failed to remove ineligible voters from their registration lists.

The State Election Board will continue the debate Monday following a report by Executive Director Mike Coan that assessed how election boards are handling mass voter challenges in Fulton and other metro Atlanta counties.

The Trump-aligned Georgia election board members all voted last month against their two colleagues to ask state lawmakers to update rules that would make it more difficult for county election boards to reject thousands of challenges to voters’ eligibility.

With two new conservative board members appointed this year, the board meetings became the site of a heated debate over several election administration proposals pushed by the Republican majority.

Georgia’s board, which has no direct role in determining election results, writes rules to ensure that elections run smoothly and hears complaints about alleged violations. The state Legislature creates laws that govern elections, a principle upheld as King, Johnston and Jeffares tried to advance their agenda since this summer.

Democrats and voting rights groups fear that a recently cemented majority of right-leaning Republican partisans on the board could push the limits of state law with rules hindering the effective administration of elections and the swift certification of results.

The Georgia Supreme Court has agreed to review the legality of several rules passed this year by Georgia election officials.

Georgia Supreme Court delays ruling on controversial election board rules until after Nov. 5

Madeline Summerville, an Atlanta-based attorney and political analyst, said she hopes the outcome of this November’s election will lead to fewer petitions to change Georgia’s election rules pushed at the election board’s meetings, which have often been packed with people waving signs, demanding changes like a requirement for hand counts of paper ballots.

The 2024 general election will prove the current election administration protocols are working as intended and disprove widespread fraud claims, she said.

The upcoming Legislative session is likely the place where new election rules will be put in place, Summerville said.

“I think that in the future you are likely to see fewer of these pushes simply because the people who are pushing them got the outcome they wanted,” she said. “But I do think the state Legislature will try to take up whatever the strongest arguments are and drop the rest.”

This story was updated at 9:15 p.m Tuesday, Oct. 22, to include additional reaction to the Georgia Supreme Court’s decision.

The Georgia Supreme Court Tuesday afternoon declined the Republican National Committee’s request to pause a trial court’s decision to block new Georgia State Election Board rules from taking effect for the Nov. 5 general election.

The state Supreme Court issued the order rejecting the emergency motion filed by the Georgia Republican Party and Republican National Committee requesting that the court fast-track the reinstatement of several State Election Board requirements that were ruled to be illegal and unconstitutional by a lower court judge last week.

Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas A. Cox Jr. issued a ruling last week invalidating new statewide procedures for hand counting paper ballots, poll watcher access and other election rules that were pushed through by three right-wing state election officials.

The Republican National Committee filed an emergency appeal directly with the Georgia Supreme Court last week to expedite the appellate process in order to have the rules enforced for the Nov. 5 election. Typically, the Georgia Court of Appeals is a necessary interim step before superior court rulings are considered by the state’s high court.

In the weeks following the November election, the Georgia Supreme Court is set to hold hearings on the RNC’s appeal before deciding on whether the new election procedures will be in place in future elections.

Attorneys for the state and the Republican groups argued for the pressing need to have rules in place for daily reporting on absentee ballots, new ID requirements for dropping off absentee ballots, hand counting paper ballots and broader discretion for local election boards to investigate the way a county conducts an election before certification.

Voters in Georgia have continued to turn out in record numbers during the second week of early voting. Georgia is considered one of seven swing states this election, and polls continue to show a tight race here between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and former Republican President Donald Trump.

Georgia Republican Party’s Chairman Josh McKoon expressed frustration Tuesday over the latest setback against enforcing “common sense” rules that would allow poll watchers greater access to polling places and give county election board members more discretion to verify the accuracy of election results.

““It is supremely disappointing to observe yet another failure of our judicial system to expeditiously resolve critical questions about our elections process,” McKoon wrote in a statement posted on X. “Georgia judges have had no problem expediting other issues, for example supporting the efforts of Georgia Democrats to kick candidates off the ballot.

Concurring in the unanimous state Supreme Court decision were a combined eight appointees of Republican Georgia governors Brian Kemp and his predecessor Nathan Deal. Justice John J. Ellington was first elected in 2018 in a nonpartisan statewide election.

“The solution for Georgians who have had enough of this sort of thing is to turn out in record numbers to elect Donald Trump and the Republican ticket,” McKoon said. “We will press our appeal next year and hope for sanity to prevail.”

One week in and early voting Georgians have already banked more than 1.4 million ballots

Cox declared several new state election rules to be inconsistent with the current Georgia election code, including a mandate for ballot hand counting that conflicted with multiple provisions defining polling officials’ duties. Under the new state election rule, after polls close on election nights, three poll workers at every precinct would individually count paper ballots to confirm whether the hand tally matches the number of machine-counted ballots.

The State Election Board is also seeking reinstatement of a highly controversial change giving the county election board’s new discretion over certifying election results. The three Republican state election officials are asking the court to clarify state law in order to give local election board officials the ability to examine election records and the right to cite any vote discrepancies or other election irregularities as a reason to refuse to certify the election results.

The State Election Board has been forced to defend against a flurry of lawsuits since former GOP state Sen. Rick Jeffares and political media personality Janelle King were appointed earlier this year to the five-member board. The controversial rules were often approved by a 3-2 majority, with Fulton County Republican Janice Johnston joining Sandy Spring’s King and Henry County’s Jeffares in advancing the proposed changes until the rules were finalized several weeks later.

Cox’s ruling last week resulted from a lawsuit filed by Eternal Vigilance Action, an election advocacy nonprofit founded in 2021 by Republican former state Rep. Scot Turner, which argues that the State Election Board’s recent rulemaking contradicts Georgia law regarding government separation of powers.

Turner, executive director of Eternal Vigilance, applauded the Supreme Court denying the emergency appeal Tuesday, which effectively ended the possibility of the contested rules going into effect this year. He stressed the plaintiffs’ resolve to continue the legal battle as the case moves forward.

“The quick decision by a Fulton County judge followed closely by a unanimous vote of the state Supreme Court should erase any doubt about the merits of our arguments,” Turner said in a statement Tuesday.

“I’m a Republican and this is a conservative policy organization. I do not like fighting my friends, but in this instance, fealty to the Georgia Constitution demands it. True conservatives oppose empowering an administrative state that’s not directly accountable to voters. This is another win for principle that only the people’s elected constitutional officers have the power to make law.”

Supporters of the State Election Board’s recently revised rules have defended them as necessary to ensure more accurate and fair elections across the state.

The state association of Georgia’s local election officials expressed concern that implementing last-minute rules like hand counting paper ballots could result in chaos at the polls and among election workers.

The three right-wing Georgia election board officials have faced an intense criticism from state and national Democratic parties, bipartisan democracy advocates and several civil rights groups.

“The court’s decision to invalidate these MAGA-backed rule changes is a huge blow to their broader plan to inject chaos into our elections and help Trump sow doubt about the 2024 outcome,” Fair Fight Action CEO Lauren Groh-Wargo said in a statement Tuesday. “The election-denier conspiracy, driven by key Trump allies who aided his scheme to steal the 2020 election, is being stopped in its tracks. The rule of law is prevailing and MAGA’s election chaos plot is crumbling.”

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and X.

The ongoing fight over the recent attempted makeover of how counties run elections by the Georgia State Election Board could be left up to the state’s highest court to decide whether the panel overstepped its authority.

The Georgia Republican Party and the National Republican Committee are requesting the Georgia Supreme Court to make a final call on whether a slew of new requirements will be enforced by the state with just over two weeks until Election Day. The GOP’s lawyers aim to overturn a Fulton County judge’s ruling Wednesday that blocks the State Election Board from enacting several new rules for the Nov. 5 general election unless the state Supreme Court rules otherwise.

Several Republican groups filed a notice of appeal Thursday directly with the Georgia Supreme Court, which will decide whether or not to take up the case. The once obscure election board is now drawing attention across the nation with its rules potentially swinging the presidential election contest between Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris and Republican Donald Trump.

Republicans are seeking a ruling from the Georgia Supreme Court instead of the state Court of Appeals to expedite getting an answer whether the election board’s series of new rules in recent months exceeded the constitutional authority of state election panels.

The Supreme Court will likely decide in the next few days whether to take up a case that concerns a government agencies’ constitutional right to make changes to how elections are conducted statewide.

Georgia public officials, election rights groups, county election officials, and Democratic and Republican party groups are watching with intense interest how Georgia courts resolve recent challenges to State Election Board rules.

Several civil rights organizations are closely monitoring the Republican parties’ filing an appeal Friday requesting the state Supreme Court to reinstate a controversial ballot hand counting rule.

Georgia is one of seven swing states that could sway the outcome of the Nov. 5 presidential match between Harris and Trump.

High-ranking Republican Party officials are blistering in their criticism of Superior Court Judge Thomas A. Cox Jr.’s ruling last week that three right-wing State Election Board members broke the law by assuming rulemaking powers the judge says are the province of the Georgia General Assembly.

Cox wrote in his ruling that the Georgia Constitution only gives the General Assembly the exclusive right to enact laws regarding elections, which the secretary of state’s Office oversees and certifies.

Cox’s ruling tossed out polarizing rule changes that granted local election board members a right to inspect voting records before certifying results. The judge also tossed out new guidelines giving county election board officials the discretion to consider any vote discrepancies or other election irregularities when deciding whether to reject or certify the results.

The Republican National Committee’s Chairman Michael Whatley called Cox’s ruling the “worst of judicial activism” that was based on political partisanship, rather than on sound legal principles.

“By overturning the Georgia State Election Board’s commonsense rules passed to safeguard Georgia’s elections, the judge sided with the Democrats in their attacks on transparency, accountability, and the integrity of our elections,” Whatley said in a statement.

If Georgia’s elections are more secure than ever, why do so many voters distrust the system?

The State Election Board has been forced to defend against a flurry of lawsuits since former GOP state Sen. Rick Jeffares and political media personality Janelle King were appointed earlier this year to the five-member board. The controversial rules were often approved by a 3-2 majority, with Fulton County Republican Janice Johnston joining Sandy Spring’s King and Henry County’s Jeffares in advancing the proposed changes until the rules were finalized several weeks later.

Georgia Republican Attorney General Chris Carr warned the board in writing in late September the actions by the three members praised by Trump that their actions weren’t allowed under Georgia law.

One of the lawsuits Cox decided Wednesday was filed by Eternal Vigilance Action, an election advocacy nonprofit founded in 2021 by Republican former state Rep. Scot Turner. The individual plaintiffs in the lawsuit included Turner and James Hall, a GOP member of the Chatham County election board.

Turner said he decided to file a lawsuit against the Georgia election board because he believes it improperly assumed election rule duties assigned to the state Legislature. Prior to retiring from the Legislature at the end of 2020, Turner sponsored several significant election legislation and served on the House committee that vetted and voted on advancing election legislation out of committee.

Turner said his lawsuit is not about the merits of each of the state board’s new rules, but instead is a defense of the longstanding conservative principle of a government branches with a separation of powers.

“I don’t know what the Supreme Court will do at this point, but I can tell you that whatever happens, we’re prepared to continue the fight,” Turner said.

The Holly Springs Republican, who defended his strong conservative voting record in the Legislature, said he also accused the Georgia election board in 2020 of improperly passing several emergency election rules in response to the pandemic.

Turner said he understands how some election board officials feel frustrated when state lawmakers don’t pass legislation based on the board’s recommendations. However, he said the attorneys defending the current Georgia election board’s rules are arguing in court that an executive branch board of unelected bureaucrats have been delegated powers that contradict Georgia law and conservative ideology.

“You cannot have five unelected people taking things into their own hands in the style of a vigilante or an emperor,” he said.

The timing of the election board’s actions caused constant tension this summer and fall for members of the state association representing Georgia’s local election officials. The board’s new rules requiring a hand count of paper ballots cast on election day, expanding poll watcher access, and election certification have been criticized by Democrats and civil rights groups as a potential source of chaos at the polls and among county poll workers.

Trump praised King, Jeffares and Johnston by name for supporting changes to county election certification boards and other election rules, calling them “pit bulls” for “victory” during a campaign rally in Atlanta this summer.

The day before Cox delivered his ruling, Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney ruled on a complaint filed by Republican Fulton election board member Julie Adams after she refused to certify the March presidential preference primary. McBurney ruled that it is mandatory for local election boards to certify election results and that county election officials can request to examine election records before the deadline.

King refutes accusations of partistan rulemaking

King lamented Cox’s rejection of the seven rules she helped champion, finding them unconstitutional and adding a reprimand for the election board he says trespassed into the business of legislating. She said she supported the new rules not based on loyalty to Trump or the GOP, but instead her desire to protect the integrity and accuracy of Georgia’s elections.

“This was a Republican who brought this case against us, so it’s not a partisan issue,” she said. “It’s just about how people are viewing our role,” King said Thursday on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution’s Politically Georgia podcast.

She recalled Cox overturned a couple of rules that also had the support of the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials.

“I’m really more disappointed in the fact that I feel like the pendulum has swung,” King said. “There were a lot of people who were anti what we were doing, and they were so upset and emotional about it. Now I think they have some reprieve, and now the pendulum has swung the other side.”

The Georgia NAACP and Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda, intervening on behalf of plaintiffs challenging a ballot hand count rule they argue would delay key certification deadlines. The rule would mandate that after polls close election night, three poll workers at every precinct would unseal ballot boxes and individually count paper ballots to confirm if the hand tally matches the number of machine-counted ballots.

“We were proud to represent our clients and the interests of Georgia voters and local elections officials in preventing an unelected State Election Board from rewriting our election code, injecting chaos into the democratic system in the immediate run-up to the November election,” said Andrea Young, executive director of American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia, which is helping provide legal services to the intervening groups.

“Early voting has begun and over one million Georgians have already cast their ballots,” Young said in a statement. “Judge Cox’s ruling prevented a rule change in the middle of the game. We were pleased that the trial court agreed with us, and look forward to making our case before the state’s highest court next.”

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and X.

Georgia State Election Board officials will seek assistance from the state Legislature to establish clearer guidelines for maintaining accurate voter lists following a tense debate Tuesday over mass voter challenges.

The board voted Tuesday to ask state lawmakers to update rules so that it would be more difficult for county election boards to methodically reject thousands of challenges to voters’ eligibility that are increasingly being filed across the state.

State Election Board Executive Director Mike Coan presented findings of an investigation into voter challenges in several metro Atlanta counties, revealing systematic denials, particularly of challenges filed in large batches.

Coan suggested that state and local officials ensure voter challenges answer the question of how to handle large volumes of voter challenges. He called for the legislature and election board to develop better guidelines for county boards reviewing voter eligibility challenges.

Coan accused several county election boards of dismissing voter challenges that used much more sophisticated technology than those used by the government.

“When you have people out there who have technology that’s far superior, you should be listening, not turn your head the other way,” he said.

The mass voter challenge controversy has been a mainstay in Georgia over the last several years since the feverish push to overturn the 2020 presidential election results after Trump narrowly lost to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia by fewer than 12,000 votes.

Many conservatives have argued that voter registration lists need to be purged of ineligible votes, while Democrats and progressive activists have argued that mass voter challenges aim to intimidate and remove voters who should remain eligible to cast ballots. The Georgia board requested last month that Coan report his findings of an investigation into allegations that eight election boards in counties led by Democrats are improperly dismissing complaints about the eligibility of tens of thousands of voters.

Coan emphasized the need for uniformity and non-discrimination in voter challenges, citing the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and U.S. Supreme Court rulings. He pointed out that many challenges that have been filed were based on outdated addresses or voters registered in non-residential locations.

“I will tell you this, the evidence in my findings reveals that the challengers are not targeting voters based on any demographic, race, party, ethnicity. Anybody that says that, you’re out to lunch. It’s not true,” said Coan, a former Republican state House legislator.

Federal law mandates a 90-day quiet period prior to an election that prevents some removals of voters from registration lists. However, Georgia’s new law states that voter eligibility challenges filed within 45 days of an election cannot be heard until after a county’s certification is completed.

The State Election Board’s meeting Tuesday was held several weeks ahead of the Nov. 5 general election, where rules adopted by three right-wing members loyal to former President Donald Trump are facing legal challenges.

Conservative election board members Janelle King, Janice Johnston and Rick Jeffares, praised by former Trump during a recent Atlanta rally, voted Sept. 23 to have Coan look into the claims that led to the DeKalb County Republican Party alleging that the DeKalb board is not following the law for reviewing voter eligibility complaints.

Atlanta Democratic State Rep. Saira Draper criticized the use of the artificial intelligence app EagleAI, a method which was rejected by county election offices. The election attorney highlighted that over 300,000 challenges in 2021 were dismissed as frivolous.

“Eagle AI is a third-party program that scrapes the internet that was rejected by county election offices as being worse than the programs that they have already,” Draper said. “Anybody that knows about regular list maintenance processes knows that the documents and the databases that the Secretary of State already uses are verified databases.”

Draper said it’s important for state and county election officials to respect the expertise of those in the field and criticizes the misinformation about election challenges. She said she was embarrassed to hear the misinformation being spread Tuesday about voter challenges.

“There are people who are sore losers who have brought frivolous voter challenges, targeting Democratic counties, and those challenges have been appropriately dismissed, and now they want a second bite at the apple, both at the courts and here at the State Election Board, one week before early voting starts,” Draper said.

Election board member King pushed back on the notion that the board’s probe targeted Democratic leaning counties. The investigation was prompted by the DeKalb Republican Party leader filing a lawsuit over the county election board’s handling of challenges as well as getting public input about issues at other counties .

“To assume that we are single-handedly picking out counties is absolutely ridiculous,” King said.

Cobb County officials argued against the mass denial of inactive voters and the unannounced nature of the investigation.

Republican Debbie Fisher, a Cobb County election board member, said that her board ignored law this year when it dismissed challenges filed against inactive voters who had not voted in at least eight years.

Daniel White, attorney for Cobb County Board of Elections and Registration, said the full Cobb board was not notified in writing about the circumstances prior to Coan’s visiting election office. White clarified that their board policies were based on state and federal laws.

“What this appears to be, to me, is an attempt to sort of set a narrative between the last meeting and this meeting, “White said. “It’ doesn’t seem to be fact finding. It doesn’t seem to be an actual investigation. You didn’t follow the process that you normally follow, to refer it to the Secretary of State or anybody else who would tell us what sections you’re citing.”

Johnston said the changes to the voter challenge law need to be addressed carefully and deliberately and fairly so that only eligible voters are on the voter list and no one is disenfranchised.

“I’m sure any method that’s used is not completely 100% error free, but perhaps some guidelines will help move that toward an accurate process with always the ability for a voter to be replaced on the voter list or given the opportunity to vote depending on the challenge is provided a quick review,” Johnston said.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported this week that since July, county election boards in the metro Atlanta region have rejected more than 45,000 voter eligibility challenges filed by conservative activists. The analysis found that since July fewer than 50 voters were removed from the rolls in Gwinnett, Fulton, Cobb and DeKalb counties, each led by Democrats.

A federal judge in Atlanta ruled in January that the right-wing, Texas-based nonprofit True the Vote did not violate the Voting Rights Act as alleged in a Fair Fight Action lawsuit that said the group intended to intimate voters as it challenged the eligibility of thousands of Georgia voters leading up to a pair of U.S. Senate runoffs won by Democrats in early 2021.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and X.

An investigation into allegations that several county election boards are failing to properly investigate challenges disputing voter eligibility is on the agenda of the controversial Georgia State Election Board on Tuesday.

The State Election Board will hold its final scheduled meeting Tuesday ahead of the Nov. 5 general election, where rules adopted by three members loyal to former President Donald Trump are facing legal challenges.

On Tuesday, the executive director of the Election Board, Mike Coan, is set to present the findings of an investigation into allegations that eight election boards in counties led by Democrats are improperly dismissing complaints about the eligibility of tens of thousands of voters.

Election Board members Janelle King, Janice Johnston and Rick Jeffares, praised by former President Donald Trump during a recent Atlanta rally, voted Sept. 23 to have Coan look into the claims that led to the DeKalb County Republican Party alleging that the DeKalb board is not following the law for reviewing voter eligibility complaints.

The mass voter challenge controversy has been a mainstay in Georgia politics over the last several years since the feverish push to overturn the 2020 presidential election results after Trump narrowly lost to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia by fewer than 12,000 votes.

Many conservatives have argued that voter registration lists need to be purged of ineligible votes, while Democrats and progressive activists have argued that mass voter challenges aim to intimidate and remove voters who should remain eligible to cast ballots.

Activists and GOP-aligned groups are now using data scraping technologies to probe Google in search of possible signs that voters have moved out of their voting jurisdiction by using artificial intelligence apps like EagleAI.

In an analysis conducted by TargetSmart, a market research firm, a number of problems were identified with the data sources that have been used by these voter challenges. The analysis was conducted on behalf of the progressive-leaning nonprofit organization Fair Fight Action, says that tools such as EagleAI are using problematic National Change of Address data as the basis for voter challenges.

“They tend to scrape the internet for anything connecting the voter’s data to information indicating that their registration should have lapsed: an obituary, a business address or a social media post, for example,” the TargetSmart report reads. “However, searching for a voter’s name and address on the internet is extremely likely to yield false matches or misleading information; any ‘’evidence’ produced by this type of search should be viewed with skepticism and certainly investigated further.”

Several million Georgians are expected to cast mail-in ballots and vote in person at polling places by Nov. 5, when the presidential race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris could be decided, as well as other seats up for grabs in Congress, all 236 in the state Legislature, and more. Georgia is considered one of seven swing states in the presidential race according to recent polls. The statewide three week early voting period will run from Oct. 15 until Nov. 1.

Republican state legislators passed a bill in March that defines the probable cause required for voter eligibility challenges.

Under Georgia law, only a registered voter from the same county or municipality can challenge another voter’s eligibility before or on Election Day. A person challenging another voter must submit the challenge in writing and specify the grounds for the challenge.

The new law states that voter eligibility challenges filed within 45 days of an election cannot be heard until after certification of the election is completed.

A federal judge in Atlanta ruled in January that right-wing True the Vote did not violate the Voting Rights Act as alleged in a Fair Fight Action lawsuit that said the group’s intended to intimate voters as it challenged the eligibility of thousands of Georgian voters leading up to a pair of U.S. Senate runoffs in early 2021.

“The data being used by far-right election deniers to challenge Georgians’ freedom to vote is based on incomplete and flawed information — bottom line it should not be used to remove voters,” Fair Fight CEO Lauren Groh-Wargo said in a statement Friday. “It seems clear the Trump campaign and MAGA operation plan to use these faulty claims, just as they did in 2020, to push lies of voter fraud to mobilize their base and undermine the election results.”

Unsettled election certification lawsuits

The State Election Board’s recent rash of new rules for counting ballots, certifying elections and expanding poll watcher access has spurred lawsuits in Georgia courts.

Several lawsuits are seeking to block rules passed by the majority of the five-member board that could be implemented for the upcoming election.

The panel has previously passed a new rule that allows local election board members to access any election records and use any discrepancies to determine whether they vote to certify an election. The new certification rules require county election board members to conduct a reasonable inquiry before certifying results and allows the inspect any election related documents prior to certifying the election.

Last week, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Robert McBurney said during hearings on election certification lawsuits that the reasonable inquiry rule is vague and needs clarification.

He said he plans to rule prior to the November election on the state and national Democratic Parties lawsuit seeking to override the rules or to clarify that they do not allow election board members to delay certification past the Nov. 12 deadline.

McBurney will also rule soon on a lawsuit filed by Fulton Election Board Member Julie Adams, who is requesting the court to give local officials the discretion to refuse to certify results.

At an Aug. 26 news conference, Democratic U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath accused three conservative Georgia State Election Board members of conducting an illegal meeting and passing new election certification rules that could be used by Donald Trump and Trump supporters to “throw our country into chaos.” Stanley Dunlap/Georgia Recorder

The right-wing SEB faction singled out for praise by Trump held a July 12 meeting that came under fire for violating the state’s open meetings and prompted a July 18 lawsuit from public records watchdog American Oversight.

On July 30, the election board rescinded new ballot counting and expanded poll watcher rules passed on July 12. The rules changes were later passed at an August board meeting.

On Sept. 30, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Thomas A. Cox, Jr. dismissed American Oversight’s request for civil fines against the three board members.

During the Sept. 23 election board meeting, Johnston spoke out against the criticism of the board’s recent rule changes.

“There appears to be an irrational and widespread panic of Democrats and Republicans and all the people of Georgia that have been led to believe that the adopted paper count rule and other adopted rules might be the basis to not certify the election,” Johnston said at Sept. 23 board meeting. ”Nothing could be further from the truth. Please, let me reassure every Democrat and member of any other party and the citizens of Georgia that these rules will help to prevent a last minute surprise of questioning the results about the count or audit or recount.”

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and X.

The Georgia State Election Board voted Monday to investigate claims that several county election boards are failing to properly investigate challenges disputing voter eligibility.

Three State Election Board members loyal to former President Donald Trump agreed to request that the board’s executive director look into whether eight election boards in counties led by Democrats are improperly dismissing complaints questioning if tens of thousands of voters are eligible to vote.

The mass voter challenge controversy has been a mainstay in Georgia over the last several years since the feverish push to overturn the 2020 presidential election results after Trump narrowly lost to Democrat Joe Biden in Georgia by fewer than 12,000 votes.

Many conservatives have argued that voter registration lists need to be purged of ineligible votes, while Democrats and progressive activists have argued that mass voter challenges aim to intimidate and remove voters who should remain eligible to cast ballots.

The Georgia board requested Executive Director Mike Coan report findings by the time the election board plans to hold its next meeting Oct. 8.

DeKalb County Republican Party Chairwoman Marci McCarthy requested that the board carefully examine how several counties handle voter eligibility cases. A lawsuit filed by the DeKalb County Republican Party and a DeKalb resident argues that the county election board has failed to address complaints challenging the status of over several thousand registered voters regarding issues such as whether residential addresses are correct and potential double registrations.

McCarthy said the DeKalb board did not follow its duties to investigate challenges of voters registered at non-residential addresses, voters who may have moved out of the county and others who have not been in touch with election officials for over a decade.

“There’s a 90-day period before an election that certain voters should not be removed from the voter list,” McCarthy said. “In particular are voters that just haven’t recently voted. However, as you might guess, voters who have died, been convicted of a felony or moved away more than 30 days ago to another county or state, do not belong in the voter rolls for that county, they are ineligible to vote.”

Federal law mandates a 90-day hiatus prior to an election that prevents certain voter list purges. However, Georgia law prohibits voter removal within 45 days of the upcoming election. Georgia’s Election Day is Nov. 5.

Earlier this month, DeKalb election officials passed a measure declaring it would follow the 90-day moratorium on voter list maintenance as prescribed under federal law.

According to state law, election boards must consider it sufficient probable cause to move forward with an investigation when a voter does not appear to reside at the same address, lists a non-residential address on their registration, or has other reasons that could disqualify them.

Georgia Election Board member Janice Johnston said Monday that it appears that a number of election officials in Georgia have been concerned about investigating voter challenges after Democratic election lawyer Marc Elias sent letters threatening legal action if challenges were upheld.

“This appears to have interfered with the duty of registrars to hear challenges and review the qualifications of voters in On the county voter list,” she said.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported this week that since July, county election boards in the metro Atlanta region have rejected more than 45,000 voter eligibility challenges filed by conservative activists. Their analysis found that since July fewer than 50 voters were removed from the rolls in Gwinnett, Fulton, Cobb and DeKalb counties.

A federal judge in Atlanta ruled in January that right-wing True the Vote did not violate the Voting Rights Act as alleged in a Fair Fight Action lawsuit that said the group’s intended to intimate voters as it challenged the eligibility of thousands of Georgian voters leading up to a pair of U.S. Senate runoffs in early 2021.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and X.

The Georgia State Election Board is set to vote Friday on several election rules that have raised red flags among voting rights organizations, Democrats and county election officials in advance of the November general election.

The board could approve a final adoption of rules that would require poll workers to conduct daily counting of ballots by hand, create new ballot reporting requirements and expand access for poll watchers. The Democratic Party of Georgia, the left-leaning voting rights group Fair Fight Action, and nonpartisan election officials are expressing concerns that several rules on Friday’s election board agenda could delay results and be weaponized to undermine the electoral process if former President Donald Trump loses the upcoming presidential election.

This summer a right-wing faction of the election board has exercised its 3-2 control of the policy-setting state agency to advance rules revamping Georgia’s vote counting process a short time ahead of the election.

Several million Georgians are expected to cast mail-in ballots and vote in person at polling places by Nov. 5, when the presidential race between Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris could be decided, as well as other seats up for grabs in Congress, state Legislature, and more. Georgia is considered one of seven swing states in the presidential race according to recent polls.

The timing of Friday’s meeting is important since it is three weeks before early voting begins and six weeks before election day. If approved, county election staff and poll workers would need to be trained and ready to implement several new procedures in time for the upcoming election.

A new ballot counting rule on the agenda for Friday would require that after the polls close, the poll manager and two witnesses hand count the number of ballots cast and verify whether any differences exist compared with the number of scanned ballots recorded that day.

The Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials said that any additional changes to the rules could interfere with the ability of poll workers to conduct elections and increase the likelihood of mistakes and delays with elections. The group’s president, W. Travis Doss, is urging the state board to delay implementing new rules until after the election.

Many local election officials “are gravely concerned that dramatic changes at this stage will disrupt the preparation and training processes already in motion,” Doss, who is the executive director of the Richmond County Board of Elections, wrote in a letter to the board.

The controversial rules have been advanced at previous meetings with the three Republican members Janelle King, Janice Johnston and Rick Jeffares casting the majority of votes needed for the five-member board to adopt new rules. Those three board members were praised from the stage by Trump at an Atlanta rally this summer.

The new certification rules and ballot counting requirements have drawn opposition from election board Democratic Party appointee Sara Tindall Ghazal and Chairman John Fervier, a nonpartisan appointee of Republican Gov. Brian Kemp.

Republican supporters of the new ballot reconciliation rule claim it is designed to ensure that ballots are correctly counted and to detect possible errors as early as possible. The proposed rules have been promoted by the Republican National Committee and Republican Party Chairman Josh McKoon, who has praised this year’s addition of King and Jeffares to the state board.

The Georgia Republican Party, VoterGa, and other right-wing players contend the new election procedures will better protect the integrity of the elections this year and beyond.

“These common-sense changes will benefit all Georgians, regardless of political affiliation as they are all designed to increase transparency and public confidence regarding our elections,” McKoon wrote in a statement.

The Democratic Party of Georgia says the ballot counting rules and more poll observer access are the latest attempts to undermine elections based on unfounded claims of widespread fraud stemming from the 2020 presidential election.

“The State Election Board exists to protect the right to vote for all Georgians, but Donald Trump’s ‘pit bulls’ for ‘victory’ are working on his behalf to sow enough doubt in our electoral process to allow him to fraudulently claim victory should he lose – just as he did in 2020,” the state party’se executive director, Tolulope Kevin Olasanoye, said in a statement Thursday. “The SEB should heed the advice of non-partisan election officials across the state who have warned that making changes close to the election will cause chaos and focus on fixing the mess they have created.”

Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has criticized the election board members following the “chaos” caused after the right-wing faction held a July meeting that came under fire for violating the state’s open meetings law. Raffensperger has called for the board not to adopt new election rules within the 90-day window of an election.

The State Election Board has previously passed a new rule that allows local election board members to access any election records and use any discrepancies to determine whether they vote to certify an election

The new certification rule in Georgia is contrary to a longstanding ministerial role of by local election officials, according to Bob Bauer, the personal attorney for President Joe Biden and a former White House adviser.

“Individual county officials or state board officials, as in Georgia, don’t decide whether an election went the wrong way, was fraudulent in some way, or marred by an irregularity that would have affected the outcome,” Bauer said at a recent election law media briefing hosted by the Knight Foundation.

There are several other rules up for consideration Friday that will not take effect in November, even if they are adopted by the board this week. One of those proposals is to add a new absentee ballot tracking method that would allow voters to confirm the status of their ballot as it’s processed by the postal service and election offices.

A lawsuit filed by the Democratic Party of Georgia seeks to declare the state election board’s recent rules invalid and two Republicans last week filed a lawsuit to block new election certification rules.

A new bipartisan group of influential former Georgia political officials has also criticized the conservative election board members’ recent rulemaking actions for contributing to undermining voter confidence.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and X.

In a rare bipartisan consensus about Georgia’s election process, both Republican and Democratic leaders agree that persistent mail delivery delays in the state could cost voters who use absentee ballots their chance to be counted on Election Day this November.

The stakes are high, as Georgia is again considered a swing state that will likely help decide who will be the next U.S. president.

Georgia’s county election officers joined several dozen of their counterparts from across the nation this month who are raising serious concerns about the U.S. Postal Service’s ability to properly deliver absentee ballots on time in the Nov. 5 general election.

The National Association of Secretaries of State and the National Association of State Election Directors sent a letter Wednesday to U.S. Postmaster General Louis DeJoy that listed a range of complaints about postal service processing facilities, inadequate staff training as well as potentially lost and delayed election mail that could put eligible voters at risk of having their registration canceled, or absentee ballots not delivered to local elections offices in time to have the votes counted.

The two national election officials urged the postal service to move up the date of implementation of “extraordinary” procedures to at least a month prior to the Nov. 5 election headlined by the presidential showdown between former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.

W. Travis Doss, Jr. president of Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials, was among the state and local election officials who signed the letter warning that if important fixes are not made to shore up months of persistent election mail delivery issues, it could hurt voter turnout and trust in the election process.

The persistent mail delivery problems are hindering the ability for voters to receive critical voting information mailers, voter address confirmation cards and absentee ballots, with widespread reports from local election officials about postmarked ballots taking longer to arrive than the three to five business day standard for First Class delivery.

“For example, election officials in multiple states report receiving anywhere from dozens to hundreds of ballots 10 or more days after postmark,” the two groups wrote to DeJoy. “There is no amount of proactive communication election officials can do to account for USPS’s inability to meet their own service delivery timelines.”

Election officials have emphasized the importance of voters returning ballots by mail early, but in nearly every state they are receiving timely postmarked ballots well after Election Day.

“Important election mailings are sent year-round, however, and lasting improvements to election mail processing require continuous attention and emphasis,” the letter says. “Temporary measures will not be sufficient to address the persistent issues highlighted by election officials.”

Meanwhile, the mail delivery delays are attracting scrutiny from a bipartisan group of Georgia’s congressional delegation.

Several Republican Georgia members of Congress, including U.S. Reps. Andrew Clyde, Mike Collins and Austin Scott, have requested updated information from DeJoy to explain mail delays.

Georgia Democratic U.S. Sens. Raphael Warknock and Jon Ossoff have also asked DeJoy how his organization plans to resolve the problems that caused Georgia to be ranked last in the postal service’s 2024 quarterly performance report in June.

This spring, Warnock and 18 other senators requested updated information from DeJoy regarding concerns changes to mail processing in Georgia would lead to more disruptions to mail delivery. mail-in ballot delays.

The Georgia congressional delegation expressed particular frustration with the new Atlanta Regional Processing and Distribution Center in Palmetto that opened in February. The Palmetto facility, about 30 miles south of Atlanta, is one of 60 postal centers across the country undergoing an overhaul intended to increase efficiency.

The letter was signed by Georgia’s Democratic U.S. Reps. Lucy McBath, David Scott, Hank Johnson, Nikema Williams, Sanford Bishop and Republican Rich McCormick.

The lawmakers asked what the postal service is doing to improve mail delivery times.

“So far, USPS has failed to live up to this standard in Georgia. Since the opening of the new Atlanta Regional Processing and Distribution Center on February 24, 2024, we have increasingly heard from Georgians about disruptions and delays in their essential postal services” said and his colleagues in the letter to DeJoy.

U.S. Rep. Buddy Carter was among a group of south Georgia and north Florida Congressmen who sent DeJoy a letter on June 25 demanding that the postal service make improvements to its mail facility in Jacksonville, Florida, after months of complaints about late and lost mail.

“Our constituents rely on the USPS for timely delivery of newspapers, life-saving medications, and all other types of parcels,” wrote the group of Georgia and Florida officials. “Some of our constituents have lost confidence in the postal system that was established before the founding of the United States. It is unacceptable for your tenure atop this department to stain a more than two-century-old reputation.”

The postal service has expressed confidence that it can deliver millions of absentee ballots in a timely manner, referring to the 2020 election when a record number of Georgians submitted absentee ballots. Following the outbreak of the pandemic, the Georgia State Election Board adopted the emergency rule allowing mailing of absentee ballot applications to all registered voters during the general election cycle, which was headlined by the presidential election between GOP incumbent Donald Trump and Democratic challenger Joe Biden.

Earlier this year, Paulding County Supervisor of Elections & Voter Registration Deidre Holden said it took two to three weeks longer than normal to receive new precinct cards notifying voters of changes spurred by redistricting. Holden said the postal service had been slow to deliver those cards and mail absentee ballots to voters who requested them.

“Their lack of concern in delivering mail will be detrimental to our absentee voters in May and November, when their votes can affect the outcome of a close election,” Holden said.

Norcross financial planner David Cross mentioned at an Aug. 7 State Election Board hearing that Warnock and Ossoff were among Georgia officials who sounded the alarm about the problems with postal service delivery.

Cross presented a rule seeking to add mail-in ballot tracking so voters can monitor the status of their absentee ballots during the mailing process.

“Murphy’s Law says that that which can go wrong, will go wrong,” Cross said. “I’m willing to bet 100 bucks that there’s going to be problems with the mail-in ballots that need to be received back. At least if we’re using the service for tracking ballots and requirements and this ability to track, the election directors will know if a ballot was delivered or not.”

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and X.

Several Democratic Georgia lawmakers, religious and civil rights leaders implored Gov. Brian Kemp Monday to remove three Donald Trump loyalist State Election Board members accused of holding an illegal meeting and enacting illegal election rules over the last several weeks.

The fallout from a July Georgia State Election Board meeting continues to play out with the recent filing of a lawsuit, ethics complaint and letter requesting Kemp to remove election board members Janelle King, Janice Johnston and Rick Jeffares, who advanced an election certification rule at a July 12 meeting that has spurred complaints that the right-wing faction violated the state’s Open Meetings Act.

The new rules allow counties to delay certifying an election to take time to investigate irregularities, replacing a procedure that has long been considered ministerial.

The Georgia Democratic Party filed suit Monday to overturn the two election rule certification changes that could leave it up to a court to settle the issue long past certification deadlines set by the state.

Also on Monday Democratic U.S. Rep. Lucy McBath of Marietta, state Sen. Nabilah Islam Parkes of Duluth and Rep. Saira Draper of Atlanta were among a number of elected officials, clergy and voting rights leaders who called for the investigation and dismissal of the board members for ethical violations, including conducting an illegal meeting.

They accused the Republican-controlled election board of trying to delay certifying elections as part of an ongoing attempt by Trump and his supporters to lay the groundwork for challenging a loss to Vice President Kamala Harris in the Nov. 5 election. Democratic officials expressed concern that changes in election rules might be used to cause discord or worse.

Islam Parkes filed a formal complaint with Kemp last week, demanding the removal of the three board members for violations of the Code of Ethics and the Georgia Open Meetings Act.

McBath accused the three election officials of advancing certification rules that could be used by Trump to “throw our country into chaos.”

“If we fail to protect our democracy, our sacred democracy, we will risk falling into chaos,” McBath said during Monday’s press conference at the state Capitol.

King, Johnston and Jeffares have passed rules that prior to certification require local election officials to conduct “reasonable inquiries” and give them the power to inspect any election records. King and Jeffares attended the July 12 “emergency” board meeting in person, while Johnston voted virtually.

King maintained on social media Monday that the new election board rules should strengthen the vote certification process and claims otherwise are from partisans interfering with a diligent ballot count.

According to Kemp’s spokesman Garrison Douglas, the governor is seeking advice from Attorney General Chris Carr to determine how to proceed with the ethics complaint filed against the election board members. Douglas said the governor isn’t certain that he has the authority to investigate complaints against the election board.

Josh McKoon, chairman of the Georgia Republican Party, attacked “far-left” Democrats on Monday for a press conference he described as insulting and threatening to the three state board members. McKoon accused McBath of making dangerous claims that the three election board members who pushed through the certification rule change are subverting democracy and suppressing voters.

McKoon questioned why there has been such opposition to rules allowing local election boards to review information before certification and provide political parties more opportunities to observe the processing of ballots.

“Words matter. Truth matters. It’s apparent that Democrats are against common sense rules that ensure election integrity in Georgia,” McKoon wrote in an emailed statement to party supporters. “The real question should be WHY they oppose these common sense rule changes.”

Suit filed to void new rules that could delay November vote certification

In the lawsuit filed Monday against the State Electoral Board, the Democratic Party of Georgia seeks to block the implementation of the new certification rules it argues gives local officials broad power to “hunt” for election irregularities, delay certification, and upend a longstanding practice for confirming election results.

Other plaintiffs in the lawsuit include several election board members from Cobb, DeKalb, Fulton, Gwinnett and Forsyth counties.

The lawsuit alleges that the “reasonable inquiry” requirement conflicts with Georgia’s law and asks a judge to mandate that election superintendents certify the results of the Nov. 5 election no later than 5 p.m. Nov. 12.

The new election rules assume that county boards have discretion to certify election results and that this can be delayed or blocked by a free-ranging investigation, the lawsuit states.

Georgia election board’s right-wing faction votes to revisit Fulton’s 2020 presidential election despite warnings it would violate law. Stanley Dunlap/Georgia Recorder

“But that is not the law in Georgia. Rather, election officials have a non-discretionary duty to certify results by 5 p.m. six days after Election Day,” the lawsuit reads. “Allegations of fraud or election misconduct are then resolved by the courts in properly filed challenges, not by county boards in the counting process.”

Another election certification lawsuit is pending in Fulton court between Fulton Election Board Member Julie Adams and the Fulton County Board of Elections and Registration. Adam is asking the Georgia court to overhaul the law so that local officials can refuse to certify results.

VoterGa, an influential group that has supported the same election rules advanced by the three board members in recent weeks, defended King, Jeffares, and Johnston’s actions Monday. The political dynamics of the state board shifted this year with the appointments of loyal Trump supporters Jeffares and King to replace two moderate Republicans.

At his rally in Atlanta earlier this month, Trump called the trio “pitbulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory.”

VoterGa co-founder Garland Favorito disagreed that the election board has broken open meeting laws or passed an illegal certification rule.

“We have led the election integrity movement in Georgia for over 17 years and believe it is important to distinguish the difference between Georgia election law and political theater,” Favorito said in a statement.

Several Georgia election officials have declined to certify the results since the 2020 election because of discrepancies in voter registration data or when a recount yielded a different vote totals from the initial machine count.

In those instances, either the majority of members voted to certify the results, the reasons for inaccuracies were resolved before the certification deadline or the secretary of state was able to use the initial count after a Coffee County board refused to certify a recount of the 2020 presidential race.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and X.

Georgia’s state prisons and Fulton County’s jail took center stage Friday before legislative committees tasked with making recommendations on how to deal with troubles arising from overcrowded and outdated detention facilities.

The Georgia Senate’s Department of Corrections Facilities Study Committee held its first hearing this month when it heard from the state’s top agency officials about the challenges of running a large prison system where severe understaffing, deteriorating buildings, smuggling of contraband have led to more violence among inmates, correctional officers and other prison staff.

State corrections officials told lawmakers at the Friday hearing the agency needs to upgrade aging prisons with more one-bed cells to resolve a typical underlying cause of violent attacks between inmates.

They also discussed the need to eliminate a complex system of drones that deliver cell phones and other illegal contraband to inmates and stop the spread of violent street gangs across the state that have a presence in Georgia prisons.

Department of Corrections Commissioner Tyrone Oliver said that there’s plenty of evidence that there are less violent conflicts amongst inmates who live in single bed cells. He referenced fewer incidents reported at Smith State Prison in Glennville since recently moving more of the population to single-occupancy cells, which makes it easier to manage the tensions that can lead to conflict with a bunkmate, Oliver said.

“When you look at our violence and most of our homicides we have it occurring in double man cells,” Oiver said.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Aug 15 that its analysis of 2024 data uncovered that the Georgia agency that oversees the state’s prisons is on track to have its deadliest year ever, with at least 24 homicides and a total of 156 deaths being reported in the first six months.

A couple of days prior to the prison hearing, federal prosecutors announced criminal indictments against two dozen current and former Georgia inmates accused of operating a network of drones to deliver drugs, cell phones and other contraband into state prisons.

The cost of building a new, state-of-the-art, secure facility can be high if Georgia’s aging prison complexes are to be replaced or renovated. The Department of Corrections reported data from June that the overall population level is approaching pre-pandemic levels with approximately 35,000 state prison inmates and nearly 50,000 inmates across several private prisons, transitional centers, and other corrections department facilities.

Oliver said he’s optimistic safety and other problems will be improved with the ongoing construction for building a about 1,500 beds complex that will be located next to the existing Washington County state prison. The new facility will fill some of the void left by the 2022 closing of the Georgia State Prison in Reidsville.

Several high-ranking Republican state lawmakers have taken a more keen interest over the last several months into the problems plaguing the state prisons system and local jails.

In June, GOP Gov. Brian Kemp announced the state’s partnership with Guidehouse Inc. for a year-long probe of the Georgia corrections department. Republican House Speaker Jon Burns, announced in July a House budget subcommittee that will evaluate the financial commitment needed to make Georgia’s correctional facilities safer and more secure.

In the state Senate, the Department of Corrections study committee is headed by Republican senators John Albers and Randy Robertson, a retired law enforcement officer for the Muscogee County Sheriff’s Office, both of whom wielded great power in recent years passing criminal justice legislation. The two of them agreed that single bed cells are the safest way to house prison inmates in facilities, especially ones with a high level of serious offenders.

“We have a lot of kumbaya groups when we talk about the safety of single man cells, they nod their heads and say this is the best thing in the world, we love it,” Robertson said. “And then when we tell them in order to build these we have to defund some of these feel-good wraparound programs and redirect the state funding into our Department of Corrections so we can build safe facilities for their neighbors, for their friends, for their families for their loved ones.”

Criminal justice reform advocates such as the Southern Center for Human Rights, the ACLU of Georgia and others have criticized lawmakers in the Republican majority for supporting increased bail bond restrictions and stiffer mandatory criminal penalties. They argue the recent laws are a trend of reversing reforms that emphasize rehabilitation over incarceration championed byr former GOP Gov. Nathan Deal.

Albers and Robertson released a draft report from a Fulton jail subcommittee that gave recommendations on how local officials can improve conditions of the detention center and reform criminal justice system.

Fulton County Jail’s subcommittee released a report highlighting 17 recommendations for improving a system that left too many inmates languishing indefinitely inside the jail.

The subcommittee was formed following a rash of inmate stabbings and the confiscation of a cache of weapons taken from inmates that offer a glimpse into the harrowing conditions inside a west Atlanta jail that is consistently overcrowded, understaffed and underfunded.

Albers said county officials are making progress by reducing Fulton’s overcrowded jail population by about 1,000 people. He credited Fulton County Sheriff Patrick Labat, Fulton prosecutors, public defenders, judges, and other officials with offering programs like night court that expedite the processing of accused offenders.

They described a dysfunctional relationship between Fulton’s law enforcement, the county commission, and criminal justice officials that has hindered the timely processing of people who are detained at the Rice Street jail.

The report recommended that Atlanta officials should transfer control of its detention center over to Fulton so it can be used to protect detainees from potentially unsafe conditions. The report also encouraged Fulton commissioners to consider allocating several hundred million dollars to build a new jail that replaces the outmoded Rice Street facility.

Additionally, it was recommended that the Fulton District Attorney’s Office work with the public defender’s office to expedite the release of people who are arrested on non-violent, non-sexually related criminal charges. The report also suggests that a new jail advisory board be formed, and that the county hire a maintenance crew to tackle the vast repairs at the Rice jail.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and X.

The Georgia State Election Board Monday finalized a rule Monday that gives local officials more power to dispute certifying election results by adopting a new ballot counting policy that critics contend could disrupt the presidential election in November.

The new rule requiring election workers to manually count votes to reconcile any discrepancies was approved Monday by the election board’s conservative members by a 3-2 vote, carried by the three Republican board members recently praised by former President Donald Trump. Critics claim that Republican state election board members are making it easier to contest Georgia’s election results if Trump once again fails to win.

The rule change approved Monday requires election workers to manually count ballots to reconcile the total number of votes with the total number of voters prior to certifying results.

Three election board members pushing through the change, Janice Johnston, Janelle King, and Rick Jeffares, voted Monday to require election workers to reconcile any discrepancies prior to election certification. State election board member Sara Tindall Ghazal, a Georgia Democratic Party appointee, and Chairman John Fervier, a nonpartisan member appointed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp this year, opposed the rule Monday.

Under the change, ballots will be counted by hand in order to ensure that the total number of ballots cast is not greater than the total number of voters who submitted ballots. The rule proposal was submitted in July by Salleigh Grubbs, chairwoman of the Cobb County Republicans, who disagreed with the argument that the new rule is intended to delay the 2024 election results if Trump loses Georgia to Harris in November.

Grubbs said Monday that legal protocol had to be worked out before she presented the rule this close to the November election. She refuted claims that she intends to disrupt the election process by pushing to implement the rule change this close to the Nov. 5 Election Day. Instead, the changes are to protect the integrity of elections this year and beyond, she said.

“We have to have assurance, as Georgians, that what we see printed on our ballot is exactly (accurate) and the only way to do that is by a handwritten affiliation on the precinct level,” Grubbs said at Monday’s virtual board meeting.

Voting rights organization Fair Fight slammed the new rule, claiming it was crafted by Trump supporters who continue to undermine confidence in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election results. In 2020, the incumbent Republican President Donald Trump was defeated in Georgia by Democrat Joe Biden by fewer than 12,000 votes.

“Trump and his MAGA allies have taken over the Georgia State Election Board to try and give a veneer of legality to their illegal scheme to disrupt the certification of Georgia’s 2024 election results,” Fair Fight CEO Lauren Groh-Wargo said in a statement. “Many of Trump’s key election denier allies and Republican Party operatives are behind these illegal, anti-freedom changes to Georgia election rules, and it’s all with the goal of helping Trump win the Peach State, even if he doesn’t earn a majority of Georgians’ votes.”

Last week, the Georgia State Election Board approved a new rule giving counties the opportunity to verify that the tabulation and canvassing were accurate and complete before certifying the results.

The new rule makes certification a mandatory process prior to the election results being verified by the secretary of state’s office.

The actions of the newly constituted election board was described as a “mess” by Georgia GOP Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger after the three conservative members held a July meeting that came under fire for violating the state’s open meetings law.

Tindall Ghazal questioned the decision to make significant rule changes at the same time counties are accepting absentee ballot requests for the upcoming Nov. 5 general election.

“We can’t be making these changes at the last minute,” Tindall Ghazal said. “This is exactly what undermines confidence in elections.”

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and X.

A trio of conservative members of the Georgia State Election Board agreed Wednesday to further investigate Fulton County’s 2020 presidential election law violations despite warnings from fellow board members that their decision was illegal.

In a 3-2 vote Wednesday, right-wing GOP Georgia election board members Rick Jeffares, Janice Johnston and Janelle King voted to report findings from the Fulton investigation into allegations of double balloting, missing ballot images and a host of other violations tied to the controversial 2020 election highlighted by the presidential contest that saw Republican incumbent Donald Trump suffer defeat to the Democrat’s nominee Joe Biden.

The case is now referred to the Republican Attorney General Chris Carr, whose office is to report on its findings within 30 days and to notify the State Election Board immediately if the investigation cannot be conducted due to a conflict of interest with a case that has also been investigated by the Georgia Secretary of State. State agencies are considered clients of the Georgia Attorney General.

The vote Wednesday referred the Fulton case to the Attorney General’s office for investigation into 17,852 reported missing ballot images, the double-counting of more than 3,000 ballot vote images, and other election-related violations. In May, Georgia election officials with the secretary of state told the election board that mistakes made by Fulton election workers in 2020 would not have changed Trump’s narrow Georgia loss to Biden.

Wednesday’s state board vote followed a Tuesday meeting when the board set the stage for county election officials to delay certifying election results while demanding more information about how votes are tallied.

Johnston raised concerns that Carr’s office could be conflicted because the case also involves the secretary of state’s office, which has been involved in the initial investigation since a complaint was filed in 2023.

Wednesday’s election board dispute stems from the May 7 board meeting, in which the state panel voted 2-1 to formally reprimand Fulton County for a host of alleged election violations. At the time, the state board agreed to assign an independent election monitor to oversee Fulton’s election operations in this November’s election contest between Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and the Democrat’s nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.

On Wednesday, board members were split on whether the May agreement had been resolved when the Fulton County election board agreed on an election monitoring team in recent weeks.

Johnston said that state election and Fulton officials were unable to agree by the July deadline set by former election board member Ed Lindsey Jr., who presented the proposition in May with a timeline for reaching a compromise on appointing the 2024 election monitoring team.

“(Lindsey) let the board know that should an agreement not be reached on a monitor in July, that he will come back with a motion to reconsider and send (the case) to the attorney general,” Johnston said.

Johnston said that Fulton officials have made it difficult for her to inspect election materials that might reveal information about the missing election documents and other issues related to the case.

“It seems to me that somebody is moving heaven and earth to not allow anyone to review the paper ballots,” she said. “I don’t know why that is. I’m just interested in the data and interested in the numbers. I’m not interested in who got more votes.”

State board Chairman John Fervier said the case could not be reopened by Johnston, who failed to support the letter of reprimand and how the election monitors would be appointed in May.

Fervier warned that the board could be violating a “double jeopardy” law which prohibits anyone from being prosecuted twice for a case involving substantially the same charges.

Several hours before Wednesday’s vote to refer the case for further investigation, the State Election Board decided to postpone deciding who would serve on the team assigned to monitor Fulton’s elections.

Georgia election board voted to revisit Fulton’s 2020 presidential election despite warnings it would violate law. Stanley Dunlap/Georgia Recorder

During Wednesday’s meeting, the board heard presentations from two proposals seeking to independently watch Fulton’s election operations through the remainder of this year. Some questions were raised about members of one proposed morning team who had ties to right-wing “election deniers” conspiracists who had sought to overturn Trump’s loss to Biden in 2020.

Meanwhile, King expressed her distrust in the supporting and monitoring team led by a former Georgia Secretary of State attorney Ryan Germany, who she accused of repeatedly downplaying any serious election problems from 2020. That bi-partisan monitoring group received the support of the Fulton County Elections Board during a July meeting.

Sherri Allen, who was sworn in as chair of the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections on Aug. 1, said the board has fully followed the state election officials’ actions in May, including accepting the reprimand of June 13 and selecting a monitor in July.

“We will not engage in any further discussions, investigations or other action related to this case,” Allen said in a statement. “To do so would be a waste of taxpayer dollars and time that is best spent preparing for the upcoming General Election.”

Sara Tindall Ghazal, the State Election Board’s sole Democrat, is an attorney who has specialized in election laws and she said Wednesday that she was voting against a measure that she contends would be a violation of her oath of as an state election officer and as an attorney “sworn to uphold the laws of the state of Georgia.”

King, who was appointed to the board by House Speaker Jon Burns last month, said worries about potential litigation should not dictate the board’s decisions.

“The amount of times I’ve been told not to do something because we could possibly be sued, if we were doing a drinking game, we would all be drunk,” King said. “At this point, I feel like we have to make sure we’re not scared of the fear of that because in some cases it’s the right thing to do.”

Fervier, who was appointed to serve in a nonpartisan chairmanship role in January by GOP Gov. Brian Kemp, said that following the law is the best action to be taken.

“Following the law is something that I will always strive to do and will vote against when I think we’re violating the law or violating rules,” Fervier said.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and X.

A trio of conservative members of the Georgia State Election Board agreed Wednesday to further investigate Fulton County’s 2020 presidential election law violations despite warnings from fellow board members that their decision was illegal.

In a 3-2 vote Wednesday, right-wing GOP Georgia election board members Rick Jeffares, Janice Johnston and Janelle King voted to report findings from the Fulton investigation into allegations of double balloting, missing ballot images and a host of other violations tied to the controversial 2020 election highlighted by the presidential contest that saw Republican incumbent Donald Trump suffer defeat to the Democrat’s nominee Joe Biden.

The case is now referred to the Republican Attorney General Chris Carr, whose office is to report on its findings within 30 days and to notify the State Election Board immediately if the investigation cannot be conducted due to a conflict of interest with a case that has also been investigated by the Georgia Secretary of State. State agencies are considered clients of the Georgia Attorney General.

The vote Wednesday referred the Fulton case to the Attorney General’s office for investigation into 17,852 reported missing ballot images, the double-counting of more than 3,000 ballot vote images, and other election-related violations. In May, Georgia election officials with the secretary of state told the election board that mistakes made by Fulton election workers in 2020 would not have changed Trump’s narrow Georgia loss to Biden.

Wednesday’s state board vote followed a Tuesday meeting when the board set the stage for county election officials to delay certifying election results while demanding more information about how votes are tallied.

Johnston raised concerns that Carr’s office could be conflicted because the case also involves the secretary of state’s office, which has been involved in the initial investigation since a complaint was filed in 2023.

Wednesday’s election board dispute stems from the May 7 board meeting, in which the state panel voted 2-1 to formally reprimand Fulton County for a host of alleged election violations. At the time, the state board agreed to assign an independent election monitor to oversee Fulton’s election operations in this November’s election contest between Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump and the Democrat’s nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris.

On Wednesday, board members were split on whether the May agreement had been resolved when the Fulton County election board agreed on an election monitoring team in recent weeks.

Johnston said that state election and Fulton officials were unable to agree by the July deadline set by former election board member Ed Lindsey Jr., who presented the proposition in May with a timeline for reaching a compromise on appointing the 2024 election monitoring team.

“(Lindsey) let the board know that should an agreement not be reached on a monitor in July, that he will come back with a motion to reconsider and send (the case) to the attorney general,” Johnston said.

Johnston said that Fulton officials have made it difficult for her to inspect election materials that might reveal information about the missing election documents and other issues related to the case.

“It seems to me that somebody is moving heaven and earth to not allow anyone to review the paper ballots,” she said. “I don’t know why that is. I’m just interested in the data and interested in the numbers. I’m not interested in who got more votes.”

State board Chairman John Fervier said the case could not be reopened by Johnston, who failed to support the letter of reprimand and how the election monitors would be appointed in May.

Fervier warned that the board could be violating a “double jeopardy” law which prohibits anyone from being prosecuted twice for a case involving substantially the same charges.

Several hours before Wednesday’s vote to refer the case for further investigation, the State Election Board decided to postpone deciding who would serve on the team assigned to monitor Fulton’s elections.

During Wednesday’s meeting, the board heard presentations from two proposals seeking to independently watch Fulton’s election operations through the remainder of this year. Some questions were raised about members of one proposed morning team who had ties to right-wing “election deniers” conspiracists who had sought to overturn Trump’s loss to Biden in 2020.

Meanwhile, King expressed her distrust in the supporting and monitoring team led by a former Georgia Secretary of State attorney Ryan Germany, who she accused of repeatedly downplaying any serious election problems from 2020. That bi-partisan monitoring group received the support of the Fulton County Elections Board during a July meeting.

Sherri Allen, who was sworn in as chair of the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections on Aug. 1, said the board has fully followed the state election officials’ actions in May, including accepting the reprimand of June 13 and selecting a monitor in July.

“We will not engage in any further discussions, investigations or other action related to this case,” Allen said in a statement. “To do so would be a waste of taxpayer dollars and time that is best spent preparing for the upcoming General Election.”

Sara Tindall Ghazal, the State Election Board’s sole Democrat, is an attorney who has specialized in election laws and she said Wednesday that she was voting against a measure that she contends would be a violation of her oath of as an state election officer and as an attorney “sworn to uphold the laws of the state of Georgia.”

King, who was appointed to the board by House Speaker Jon Burns last month, said worries about potential litigation should not dictate the board’s decisions.

“The amount of times I’ve been told not to do something because we could possibly be sued, if we were doing a drinking game, we would all be drunk,” King said. “At this point, I feel like we have to make sure we’re not scared of the fear of that because in some cases it’s the right thing to do.”

Fervier, who was appointed to serve in a nonpartisan chairmanship role in January by GOP Gov. Brian Kemp, said that following the law is the best action to be taken.

“Following the law is something that I will always strive to do and will vote against when I think we’re violating the law or violating rules,” Fervier said.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and X.

The Georgia State Election Board pushed through proposed right-wing Republican election rules Tuesday that have sparked fierce debates over giving county officials greater authority to refuse to certify voter tallies.

Today, certification by local election boards is considered an administrative task that doesn’t allow members to delay as they investigate results provided to them by county officials. The new process could delay the certification of a Georgia election in a large county if a single board member called for an investigation into equipment or administration of the vote.

Tuesday’s election board meeting comes on the heels of Saturday’s campaign rally in Atlanta, where former President Donald Trump praised conservative Georgia election board members Rick Jeffares, Janice Johnston, and Janelle King for their staunch support of new election policies in Georgia. That included the significant rule adopted Tuesday that allows local election boards members to exercise their discretion of “reasonable inquiry” to review documents and other election-related information prior to voting on certification.

Prior to the most recent election board meeting, Democratic Party state lawmakers and organizations including Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, Fair Fight Action, the ACLU of Georgia, Common Cause Georgia, and Public Rights Project, urged the election board not to adopt a rule that would allow partisan election board members to potentially sabotage the Nov. 5 election.

The new rule became effective after Tuesday’s vote. Under Georgia law, county election boards are required to vote on certifying election results within six days after Election Day. The Georgia Secretary of State is mandated by law to verify the statewide results for the upcoming presidential election by Nov. 22.

The new rule allows local election board members to request insight from election supervisors and staff as well as access other election-related materials to base their decision to sign off on the vote count local officials provide, or refuse to certify the results.

The new rule could lead to more legal challenges over a state law that still requires county boards to certify the results as part of their normal election duties. Several Republican Georgia county election officials declined to certify the results of recent elections, but their efforts were thwarted by boards controlled by Democrats.

The proposal was presented Tuesday by Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections Board member Michael Heekin, who stressed the importance of due diligence by officials before signing legal documents signaling the accuracy of an election.

Heekin said it is the responsibility of county election officials to ensure that potential voting irregularities or other issues have not affected the results.

The battle over election certification played out this year when Fulton County Election board member Julie Adams refused to certify primary election results and filed a lawsuit arguing that election officials be granted greater discretion over the process. The court case is still pending.

“You have to look at how the election was run. Were there problems? Was it a carefree election, or was it a snake bit?” Heekin said. “You would quantify what you need to know in discussions with the professional staff that run the elections.”

Democratic Electron Board Member Sara Tindall Ghazal, said that Heekin’s rule change doesn’t change a law that still requires the county board to certify the results by the Monday following Election Day.

“This doesn’t change anything in the statute,” she said. The statute still mandates that counties certify by 5 p.m. Monday and they will be in violation of state law if they refuse to do so.”

Johnston said the new rule aligns the duty of local election boards to oversee elections fairly. The local officials will use the opportunity to review the necessary paperwork and other information needed to ensure the results were tabulated correctly, she said.

“Sure, there is a (certification) timetable to be met and should be taken seriously,” she said. “Any board that would not certify should be able to provide very specific reasons why they are not.”

Georgia NAACP president Gerald Griggs said that it’s unwise to change rules during the middle of an election cycle, which could lead to needless confusing complications for voters.

“The focus should be on ensuring a smooth and transparent election where every eligible voter can participate without unexpected hurdles,” Griggs posted Tuesday on social media platform X. “Stability and consistency in election rules are crucial to maintaining the integrity of our democratic process. True Election Integrity would be not allowing the “Big Lie” to change election rules and procedures.”

According to Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, the certification of elections by deadlines is a routine function of election boards, which still have the opportunity to investigate any discrepancy later.

“Certification is not an opportunity for county officials to engage in political grandstanding, make protest votes against election practices they dislike, or conduct free-roaming inquiries into the election results. Georgia law provides other avenues outside of the certification process to resolve allegations of error or fraud in election returns, including through the courts. If the Board were to approve this amendment, it would extend county officials’ powers far beyond what the legislature has specified.”

In another vote Tuesday, the three Republican election board members agreed to move ahead with a proposed rule that would expand poll watcher access while ballot tabulation is taking place during an election.

Detractors contend the new access could be used by partisan poll watchers to intimidate poll workers and threatens a state ballot secrecy law designed to protect the identifying information of voters.

The rule potentially expands the ability of partisan poll watchers to observe the processing of absentee ballots, provisional ballot verification, the sign off on election equipment and other vote count reconciliation processes.

Georgia Recorder is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Georgia Recorder maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor John McCosh for questions: info@georgiarecorder.com. Follow Georgia Recorder on Facebook and X.