Georgia attorney general warns election board that proposed rule changes are illegal
Sam Levine
The Guardian has obtained a memo from the Georgia attorney general’s office advising the state election board that several of the rules it is voting on today are illegal.
“A review of the proposed rules reveals several issues including that several of the proposed rules, if passed, very likely exceed the board’s statutory authority and in some instances appear to conflict with the statutes governing the conduct of elections. Where such is the case, and as outlined below, the board risks passing rules that may easily be challenged and determined to be invalid,” the letter says.
Key events
Sam Levine
Sara Tindall Ghazal, a Democrat on the state election board, just had a back-and-forth with Sharlene Alexander, a Republican on the Fayette county election board, over whether her proposal to count ballots by hand was feasible.
Ghazal noted that no local election officials had told her they supported the rule. Alexander and other Republicans have framed the rule as something that will be a minimal burden to implement.
Sam Levine
The board is about to vote on a proposal to require hand-counting of ballots on election night.
Janice Johnston, a Republican on the board, just went through a lengthy recitation of election rules that were adopted close to an election. She’s trying to rebut criticism from election officials that it’s too close to the election to adopt new rules.
“The hue and cry about how early or how late it is to adopt these rules, I don’t buy. Rulemaking is good any month of the year.”
Sam Levine
We’re now beginning the part of the meeting during which the board is going to consider rules.
First up is perhaps the most controversial change it is considering today: a rule that would require election workers to hand-count ballots on election night.
Sharlene Alexander, a member of the board of elections in Fayette county, is presenting the rule and says she doesn’t understand why it’s so controversial – it’s just checking the machine counts.
Earlier this morning, election officials and poll workers warned against this rule, saying it’s not needed and would only delay tabulation of election results.
Sam Levine
One of the speakers who really stuck out to me this morning was Milton Kidd, the election director in Douglas county, Georgia.
He was one of half a dozen local election officials to urge the state election board not to enact rules so close to the election. But Kidd also pointed out that the volunteer board – whose members are not election experts – was ignoring the advice of seasoned election experts.
“The idea that you’re not going to listen to the individuals that are charged with conducting elections is absurd to me,” he said. “Most of us have worked decades in these career paths, and to say that we don’t know what we’re talking about, you wouldn’t say that to any other professional.”
“I’ve stayed at a lot of Waffle Houses in my life, but that does not qualify me to operate a Waffle House,” he added.
Sam Levine
We’re now wrapping up the morning public comment session of this meeting.
The overwhelming majority of speakers have urged the board not to adopt the proposed rules, including around half a dozen local election officials who have spoken.
We’re expecting to move on to discussion of the actual new rules shortly.
Sam Levine
Travis Doss, executive director of the Richmond county board of elections in Augusta and the president of the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials, urged the board to stop its rulemaking.
“Now is simply not the time to implement sweeping changes that could create unnecessary confusion and disruption,” he said.
He noted that in previous elections – the 2018 gubernatorial race and the 2020 presidential race – Stacey Abrams and Donald Trump, respectively, said last-minute changes contributed to their loss.
He didn’t mention her by name, but Doss at one point seemed to be appealing directly to Janice Johnston, a retired OB/GYN who is leading the Republican bloc on the board. He said what the board was doing was akin to making changes during the third trimester of pregnancy.
Sam Levine
Brook Schreiner, the election director in Butts county, Georgia, is the first election official to testify at today’s meeting.
Local election officials throughout the state have strongly objected to the way the board has pushed through election rules.
“While we do not oppose many of the rules being processed, the timing could certainly be improved,” she said.
She also laid out how a proposal to hand-count ballots in local precincts “would unnecessarily delay election day tabulation”. She noted that poll managers already have a litany of tasks on election night, including sealing ballots and transporting memory cards.
Sam Levine
We’re now beginning the public comment section of the meeting, which is expected last at least an hour.
John Fervier, the board’s chairman, called it his favorite portion of the meeting, which may have been said somewhat tongue-in-cheek.
Sam Levine
The Georgia state election board meeting has only been under way for a few minutes and you can already see the two factions on the board at work.
Janice Johnston, the state GOP’s representative on the board, went back and forth with John Fervier, the board chair, over two last-minute additions to the agenda. One was to add a petition for rulemaking to the agenda, which Fervier objected to because he said the board hadn’t had proper time to consider it.
Johnston and two other members of the conservative bloc overruled Fervier’s attempt to block the petition from the agenda.
Johnston has seen a meteoric rise from being a citizen activist to essentially being in control of the three-member majority on the board.
