Watchdog sues Georgia election board charging Republican faction violated laws

A government watchdog organization is accusing the Georgia State Election Board of violating the Georgia Open Meetings Act by holding a meeting on short notice to advance election rule changes ahead of the Nov. 5 election.

American Oversight filed a lawsuit Friday in Fulton County Superior Court accusing conservative appointed election board members Rick Jeffares, Janice Johnston, and Janelle King of failing to provide

timely public notice for a July 12 meeting, not having enough board members present to conduct business and violating several other the board’s rules.

American Oversight claims that the Republican board members orchestrated the illegal meeting in order to advance proposed rules that would dramatically increase the number of partisan poll watchers permitted at tabulation centers and impose unnecessary burdens on election workers. Also named as defendants in the lawsuit are the board’s two other members, Chairman John Fervier and Sara Tindall Ghazal, the lone appointee of the state Democratic Party. Both members did not attend the July 12 meeting after expressing concerns about its legitimacy.

Jeffares, Johnston, and King allegedly conducted the meeting on July 12 in spite of warnings the day prior from the Georgia attorney general’s office that it probably would violate several state laws on public access to government meetings, the lawsuit states.

“Georgia’s Open Meetings Act and others like it are vital to a functioning democracy by helping ensure official actions are conducted in full view of the public,” American Oversight’s executive director Chioma Chukwu said. “Attempts to maneuver around it to advance changes to Georgia’s election rules are a clear violation of this law.

Georgia law requires the State Election Board to provide at least one week’s notice to hold regular meetings, emergency meetings should be announced 24 hours in advance except in limited circumstances. American Oversight claims that notice of the July 12 election board meeting was not publicized in the customary methods of posting online to the board’s website and emailed to its subscriber list.

“The notice was apparently posted in only one place: outside the room at the state Capitol building where the meeting would take place, where only the few who happened to pass by late on a Thursday afternoon would come across it,” the lawsuit says. “These circumstances are telling. They suggest the individual defendants knew exactly what they were doing in calling this last-minute meeting: trying to push through controversial proposals without the due notice required by—and consequent robust discussion and debate contemplated under—the Open Meetings Act.”

Additionally, the plaintiffs claim that since Johnston appeared via videoconference instead of in person, the meeting did not meet the requirements for a majority quorum of three members. According to the lawsuit, the public should also have been able to view a stream of the meeting online in accordance with state laws if a board member appearing virtually was counted as part of the quorum.

The timeline for the July 12 meetings dates back to the July 9 all day meeting that was filled with several hours of public comments before the state board was presented with several state rules. Fervier announced that the meeting would reconvene the following morning, but that meeting did not resume because the only members in attendance were Fervier and Ghazal.

According to correspondence obtained by media outlets through open records requests, Josh McKoon, the executive director of the Georgia Republican Party, texted the right-wing board members to encourage them to hold the meeting and shared a draft of the rules to be presented.

On July 12, King defended the decision to continue the July 9 meeting or risk putting any progress from the prior meeting on hold for another month until the board’s next scheduled meeting.

The lawsuit aims to block the final approval of proposed election rules that otherwise could be adopted at the board’s Aug. 6 meeting, in time for the November election. According to the lawsuit, the rules being advanced at the July 12 meeting could significantly impact upcoming elections. American Oversight contends that if the rules are changed to increase the access of partisan poll watchers and further burden election workers, they could further sow chaos in elections, similar to what happened in the 2020 presidential election cycle.

American Oversight also criticizes the state board for not taking action after the watchdog nonprofit sent the board a letter outlining its Open Meetings Act complaints on July 15. The plaintiffs are asking the judge to declare the July 12 meeting illegal and for the state to award attorney fees and other expenses.

On Friday, Ghazal declined to comment on the ongoing litigation, but confirmed that the attorney general’s staff emailed board members in advance about the potential violation of the Open Meetings Act. She previously expressed frustration that her three colleagues circumvented government transparency rules.

“I can’t speak to my fellow board members’ motivations for taking these actions, nor do I wish to give any additional oxygen to the disinformation they are spreading in an effort to undermine public confidence in our elections and delegitimize everything this board does moving forward,” Ghazal said during a July 12 media briefing hosted by the Democratic Party of Georgia. “But these violations make today’s meeting — and any actions taken or motions passed during that meeting — illegitimate.”

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