Emails show Republican leader’s involvement in Georgia election rules

Two rules approved by the State Election Board in a possibly illegal meeting last week appear to have been suggested by the Georgia Republican Party.

Documents obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution show Georgia GOP Chairman Josh McKoon sent the text of the rules to board member Rick Jeffares several days before the meeting. McKoon also shared talking points summarizing why the rules should be adopted.

Jeffares and two other Republican board members later approved one of the rules McKoon suggested and approved a scaled-back version of the other.

On Wednesday, two of the Republican board members defended their actions. They said the meeting was legal and — though they were appointed to the board by Republicans — they are not doing the party’s bidding.

“I’m just trying to do the right things,” board member Janelle King told the AJC. “The rules we’re putting in place will help all Georgians.”

The state’s Democratic Party saw McKoon’s influence as further evidence that Republicans are paving the way to challenge a Democratic victory in the November presidential election.

“The public servants on this board should not act as a political arm of the Republican Party, (former President Donald) Trump or any other candidate, and they should call for another meeting out in the open to restore public confidence ahead of what will be a close election,” Tolulope Kevin Olasanoye, executive director of the party, said in a statement to the AJC.

McKoon did not respond to requests for comment.

Debate over election rules has flared since Trump sought to overturn his narrow loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 election, claiming the election was rife with voting fraud. Numerous investigations by state and federal officials and Trump’s own campaign have found no evidence of enough fraud to affect the outcome of the election.

Trump and others now face criminal charges in Georgia and Washington for what prosecutors say was an illegal scheme to overturn Biden’s victory.

Trump’s voting fraud allegations have led Republicans in the General Assembly to rewrite election laws on multiple occasions in recent years. Now the State Election Board also wants to change some rules.

On July 9, the board advanced a proposal that would allow local election boards to review a vast quantity of documents before certifying the results of this year’s presidential election. Supporters say the move is needed to ensure votes aren’t overlooked — which has occurred in some counties. Critics say the move will allow local Republican board members to embark on endless fishing expeditions to justify refusing to certify a Democratic victory.

On Friday three Republican board members — Jeffares, King and Janice Johnston, all of whom have criticized the conduct of the 2020 presidential election — advanced two more rules. One would require county election boards to post daily online ballot counts on their websites. The other would expand the number of partisan monitors during ballot counting.

Supporters say the rules will improve the transparency of Georgia elections.

“This is not Republican versus Democrat,” said Jeffares, a former Republican lawmaker who served with McKoon in the state Senate. “These are just good election laws.”

But McKoon’s involvement drew criticism from Democrats and from the left-leaning open government advocacy group American Oversight.

“If the three board members who convened this bogus meeting were spoon-fed proposed new regulations by political party operatives seeking immediate partisan advantage, that might explain why the board members were so desperate to push these changes through in direct violation of Georgia law,” American Oversight said in a statement to the AJC.

Documents obtained by the AJC show McKoon emailed Jeffares the text of two proposed rules on July 8. He CC’d two Republican Party officials on the email: Josh Helton, a senior adviser for election integrity at the Republican National Committee, and Alex Kaufman, general counsel for the Republican Party of Georgia.

“As we discussed here are four files, each proposed rule along with a brief one page talking point document summarizing the salient portions and reasons for adoption,” McKoon wrote.

Jeffares forwarded McKoon’s email to an attorney for the State Election Board and asked her to share it with other board members.

“There’s nothing to hide there,” Jeffares told the AJC when asked about McKoon’s involvement. “People can make communications to us.”

The board met the next day. But after an all-day meeting, Board Chairman John Fervier adjourned the meeting until the next morning without action on the rules proposed by McKoon. Jeffares, Johnston and King could not attend the next day. So on that day Fervier announced the meeting would be recessed until an unspecified time.

Jeffares, Johnston and King wanted to reconvene the meeting Friday. But in an email to board members, the state attorney general’s office suggested a meeting on such short notice might not be legal.

The Georgia Open Meetings Act requires at least one week’s notice for meetings that do not qualify as an emergency, and the attorney doubted the current situation was an emergency.

Nonetheless, Jeffares, Johnston and King convened the meeting Friday, along with the board’s executive director, Mike Coan. They cited a provision that allows just 24 hours’ notice of a meeting in emergency or special circumstances. They said the meeting was needed to act on the rules in time for them to become effective for the November election.

But a notice for the meeting did not appear on the election board’s website, and the meeting was not livestreamed. Jeffares said he emailed a notice to numerous people who were interested in the rules and had the notice posted on a meeting room door at the Georgia Capitol. Several dozen people attended Friday’s meeting.

Fervier, the chairman, and Democratic appointee Sara Tindall Ghazal could not attend the meeting. Those who attended passed the rule requiring counties to post daily ballot counts. But it did not approve McKoon’s version of the rule boosting the number of poll watchers. Instead, it approved another proposal to boost the number of monitors, but by a smaller amount.

The status of the rules is not clear. Ordinarily, they would be posted on the board’s website for 30 days of public comment. The board would then meet again to consider final approval.

But Jeffares and King said the secretary of state’s office has not posted the rules for public comment. Nor did it post the notice of Friday’s meeting, as they said they requested.

A spokesman for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said the agency would assist the State Election Board by posting such material at the request of Fervier, the election board chairman. But he has not made such a request. Fervier did not respond to a request for comment.

Meanwhile, the board’s approval of the two rules has sparked a growing backlash . The Democratic Party and American Oversight have threatened to file lawsuits contesting the rules, citing alleged violations of open meetings requirements.

And a Fulton County election official asked Gov. Brian Kemp to remove the three election board members who participated in Friday’s meeting, along with the executive director. On Wednesday, Kemp’s office responded that state law does not authorize the governor to take such action.

Cathy Woolard, who filed the complaint in a personal capacity, disagreed with the governor’s office and indicated the issue might have to be resolved by lawsuits.

““I guess we are going to have to do this the hard way,” she said.

Staff writer Mark Niesse contributed to this article.

Credit: TNS

Credit: Ziyu Julian Zhu/AJC

Credit: Ziyu Julian Zhu/AJC

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