American Oversight Secures Legal Victories in Georgia and Wisconsin, Advancing Election Transparency
American Oversight had two key victories in its work to advance election and voting rights transparency in the states.
Yesterday, American Oversight secured a significant legal victory after a Georgia court denied State Election Board (SEB) member Janice Johnston’s motion to dismiss in its ongoing transparency lawsuit against the Georgia SEB. The lawsuit, filed in October 2024, challenges systematic attempts by certain SEB members to obstruct public access to information by conducting official business through private email accounts and repeatedly failing to comply with records requests. This ruling allows American Oversight to continue its pursuit of essential documents that may uncover hidden attempts to interfere with elections.
The development comes on the heels of a major win in Wisconsin, where former state Supreme Court Justice Michael Gableman agreed to surrender his law license following a disciplinary complaint related to his conduct during his investigation of the 2020 presidential election. The complaint included allegations of failures to comply with state public records laws — violations that American Oversight’s litigation brought to light. American Oversight launched a comprehensive investigation into Gableman’s election probe, uncovering significant public records law violations.
“The surrender of former Justice Gableman’s law license and our recent legal victory in Georgia mark important steps toward accountability in two critical states,” said American Oversight interim Executive Director Chioma Chukwu. “In Wisconsin, our litigation brought long-overdue answers about a baseless inquiry into the results of the 2020 presidential election that abused public trust. In Georgia, we’re demanding transparency around election officials’ attempts to push through partisan rule changes ahead of last November’s election. When anti-democratic forces attempt to erode confidence in our elections, transparency isn’t negotiable. We remain committed to uncovering the truth and holding officials accountable, at every level of government.
Background
In October 2024, American Oversight filed a lawsuit against the Georgia SEB and one of its members, Janice Johnston. The lawsuit alleged that certain SEB members have systematically obstructed public records requests by using private email accounts for official correspondence and refusing to adequately search for or produce required documents.
In 2022, American Oversight published a report on its findings from the investigation of the Wisconsin Assembly’s partisan and baseless review of the 2020 election led by conservative attorney Michael Gableman.
The investigation revealed frequent document destruction and poor record-keeping practices within Gableman’s office. It also uncovered the influence of partisan and anti-democratic individuals and groups — several of which had actively promoted election fraud conspiracy theories or sought to overturn Wisconsin’s 2020 election results.
In October 2024, the Wisconsin Office of Lawyer Regulation filed a disciplinary complaint against Gableman. The complaint detailed 10 counts related to his conduct while overseeing the election review, including failures to comply with state public records laws that American Oversight’s litigation had brought to light.
In March 2025, American Oversight won the Wisconsin Freedom of Information Council’s Citizen Openness Advocate (The Copee) award at its annual Openness in Government Awards for its multiple public records lawsuits and investigation into the partisan and baseless inquiry into the results of the 2020 presidential election.