American Oversight Sues Georgia State Election Board for Public Records Obstruction, Issues Document Preservation Notices to Election Officials in Key States

This week, nonpartisan public records watchdog American Oversight filed a lawsuit against the Georgia State Election Board (SEB) and one of its members, Janice Johnston. The lawsuit alleges 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. 

This legal action, filed Wednesday, aims to ensure accountability for Georgia’s election board and underscores the critical need for transparency ahead of next week’s election. American Oversight is asking the Fulton County Superior Court to order the SEB to release key documents and communications related to election administration and to impose penalties for violations of the Open Records Act (ORA). American Oversight is represented in the lawsuit by in-house counsel along with Atlanta-based attorneys Henry R. Chalmers and Dymond A. Anthony with Arnall Golden Gregory LLP.

American Oversight also sent a formal letter to the Georgia Inspector General, Attorney General, and other state officials urging an investigation into the SEB’s violations of both the ORA and the state’s Open Meetings Act. Both the lawsuit and letter come amid growing concerns over recent SEB rule changes that election experts say could undermine voting rights and erode public trust in Georgia’s voting process. 

At the same time, American Oversight has also sent records preservation notices to state and local election officials in Georgia, Arizona, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin reminding them of their legal obligation to retain all election-related documents, including communications on personal devices or accounts. This reminder is aimed at safeguarding essential election information and warns officials in key states — who may be laying the groundwork for post-election challenges or attempts to disrupt election results — of the consequences for failure to comply with public records laws. 

“When anti-democratic forces are actively seeking to undermine trust in our elections, the public must be kept informed of the tactics used to advance those dangerous efforts,” said American Oversight interim Executive Director Chioma Chukwu. “By filing this suit and issuing records preservation notices to officials in the key states of Arizona, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin, we are taking decisive action against attempts to shield election sabotage from public view. Our lawsuit demands accountability from the Georgia State Election Board members who seek to hide their actions from the public, and our preservation notices underscore that any attempts to circumvent transparency laws or destroy evidence of election disruption will not go unchecked.”

The retention notices come after American Oversight’s recent success with its lawsuit in Cochise County, Ariz., against officials who refused to certify the 2022 midterm election results by the legal deadline and failed to properly respond to related public records requests. That lawsuit exposed the officials’ use of personal devices to conduct government business and  forced the county to turn over thousands of pages of public records, including hundreds of communications that had been improperly deleted.

In Waynesboro, Va. — where members of the board of elections recently threatened to refuse to certify the 2024 results unless a hand count of ballots is conducted — American Oversight has also discovered through its public records work that these county board members do not have government email accounts and are instead using personal accounts for official government business. The discovery casts significant doubt on whether public officials charged with running Waynesboro elections are complying with their legal obligations regarding state record retention laws — and what information remains hidden from the public.

Background on American Oversight’s Allegations Against SEB:

• The five-member SEB is responsible for administering Georgia’s elections and has undergone significant changes since 2021 when the Republican-led legislature removed Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger as board chair and have since replaced him with three election-denying members, whom former President Trump has referred to as his “pit bulls.”
• American Oversight filed several requests in August seeking communications from SEB members, including records related to EagleAI, a data system used by conservative activists for mass voter challenges.
• In September, an employee from the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office provided a partial response to the EagleAI request that did not include any communications produced from Johnston’s email account, citing a lack of access to her private email.
• In a follow-up email in October, the employee confirmed that Johnston and another board member, Janelle King, are not providing SEB staff access to search the private Gmail accounts they use for SEB business.
• For another request detailed in the lawsuit, seeking certain communications from SEB members Janice Johnston and Rick Jeffares, American Oversight paid a $1,300 processing fee but has not received the requested records, in part because of Johnston’s refusal to turn over documents or provide staff access to her private email.
• In July, American Oversight sued the SEB for advancing election rules during an illegal meeting without proper notice or quorum, violating the state’s Open Meetings Act. After the lawsuit, the rules were reintroduced in a properly noticed meeting. It was revealed that Georgia GOP Chair Josh McKoon, in coordination with the RNC, provided one of the contested rules to an SEB member.