Georgia election board’s right-wing faction revisits Fulton’s 2020 presidential election
Three conservative members of Georgia’s State Election Board decided Wednesday to investigate further the violations of Fulton County 2020 presidential election laws, despite warnings by other board members that this decision was illegal.
Right-wing GOP Georgia Election Board members Rick Jeffares (3-2), Janice Johnston (3-2) and Janelle King (3-2) voted Wednesday to report the findings of the Fulton Investigation into allegations of double voting, missing ballot images and a number of other violations related to the controversial presidential election of 2020 highlighted by Republican incumbent Donald Trump’s defeat to Democrat nominee Joe Biden.
The case has now been referred to Republican Attorney General Chris Carr. His office must report its findings in 30 days. If the investigation is not possible due to conflict of interest, the State Election Board will be notified immediately. The Georgia Attorney General is considered a client.
In a vote held on Wednesday, the Fulton case was referred to the Attorney General’s office, for an investigation of 17,852 missing ballot images reported, the double counting of more than 3,500 ballot vote images and other violations related to elections. Georgia secretary of state election officials told the Georgia election board in May that the mistakes made by Fulton workers during the 2020 election would not have affected Trump’s narrow Georgia victory over President Biden.
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The state board voted on Wednesday after a meeting held on Tuesday, when the board had set up a scenario where county officials could delay certification of election results by requesting more information regarding how votes were tallied.
Johnston expressed concern that Carr’s Office could be in conflict because the case involves also the Secretary of State’s Office, which is involved in the initial investigations since a complaint has been filed in 2023.
The dispute over the election board on Wednesday stems from a board meeting held on May 7, in which the state board voted to formally reprimand Fulton County, based upon a number of alleged violations. The state board had agreed at the time to appoint an independent election observer to oversee Fulton County’s elections in November’s contest between Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump and Democrat Vice President Kamala Harris.
The board was divided on Wednesday about whether the agreement reached in May had been resolved after the Fulton Elections Board decided on an election monitor team recently.
Johnston stated that the state election board and Fulton officials could not agree on the deadline of July set by Ed Lindsey Jr. who had presented the proposal in May, with a timetable for reaching a consensus regarding the appointment of the 2024 election monitor team.
will come back with a motion to reconsider and send (the case) to the attorney general,” Johnston said.
Johnston claimed that officials at Futon had made it difficult for the woman to examine election materials which might have revealed information about the missing documents or other related issues.
She said, “It appears that someone is doing everything possible to prevent anyone from reviewing the paper ballots.” “I have no idea why this is happening. I am only interested in data and numbers. “I’m not concerned about who got the most votes.”
John Fervier, the chairman of the Election Board, said that the case cannot be reopened because Johnston failed to back up the letter reprimanding him and the way the election monitors will be appointed in may.
Fervier warned the board that it could be in violation of a law called “double jeopardy”, which prevents someone from being prosecuted more than once for the same or similar charges.
The State Election Board delayed a decision on who would be part of the team that will monitor Fulton’s election until a few hours before the vote scheduled for Wednesday.
The board heard two proposals at its meeting on Wednesday. Both were aimed at monitoring Fulton’s elections operations independently for the rest of the year. Some questions were asked about the members of a proposed morning team, who had links to right-wing “election denial” conspiracists that had tried to reverse Trump’s defeat to Biden in 2019.
King also expressed her mistrust in the team of supporters and monitors led by former Georgia Secretary-of-State attorney Ryan Germany. She accused him of continually downplaying serious problems with 2020 elections. The Fulton County Elections Board gave its support to the bipartisan monitoring team during a meeting in July.
Sherri Allen was sworn in on August 1 as chair of Fulton County Board of Registration & Elections. She said that the board had fully followed state election officials in May’s actions, including accepting the reprimand of July 13 and selecting a monitoring in July.
Allen stated in a press release that “we will not engage in further discussions, investigation or other actions related to this matter.” “This would be a wasteful use of taxpayer money and time, which is better spent on preparing for the General Election.”
Sara Tindall Ghazal is the sole Democrat on the State Election Board. She has specialized in the field of election law and said that she was voting against a proposal that would violate her oath as a state election officer as well as as an attorney who “swore to uphold laws of the State of Georgia.”
King, who was appointed by House Speaker Jon Burns to the Board last month, said that concerns about possible litigation should not dictate the board’s decision-making.
King explained: “I’ve heard so many times that we shouldn’t do something for fear of being sued. If we played a drinking-game, we would be all drunk.” “At this stage, I don’t think we should be afraid of being sued because sometimes it is the right thing to.
Fervier was appointed by GOP Governor Brian Kemp to serve as a nonpartisan chairperson in January. Brian Kemp said that the best thing to do is to follow the law.
Fervier stated that he would always vote against breaking the law and rules.
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