Newsletter: The Georgia Election Board’s Illegal Meeting

Last Friday, July 12, three members of the Georgia State Election Board held a last-minute meeting to advance proposed new election rules. The meeting not only drew scrutiny from voting-rights groups in the state, it also violated the Georgia Open Meetings Act.

On Thursday, American Oversight sued the board for violating the law, which requires advance public notice and a quorum. 

• “Georgia’s Open Meetings Act and others like it are vital to a functioning democracy by helping ensure official actions are conducted in full view of the public,” American Oversight’s Chioma Chukwu said. “Attempts to maneuver around it to advance changes to Georgia’s election rules are a clear violation of this law — both in principle and in practice. Any proposals voted upon during this meeting are null and void, and we ask the court to prevent them from moving ahead with the proposed rules and to declare their actions at last week’s meeting invalid.”

Our lawsuit seeks civil penalties against the three board members who convened the illegal meeting for a knowing and willful violation of the law, and asks the court to prevent the board from moving ahead with its proposed rule changes and to declare the actions at the meeting invalid.

• Late on July 11, board member Rick Jeffares created a document that was posted outside a meeting room at the state capitol, stating that a meeting would be held the next day at 4 p.m., despite indication from the board chair and another member that they would be unavailable. The document was not shared to a secretary of state email list for notifications nor posted to the board’s website. 
• Reporting indicates that board members were aware of the potential legal issues that could arise if they held last Friday’s meeting. Beforehand, the Georgia attorney general’s office reportedly warned members of the potential violation of the law.
• Immediately after American Oversight heard about the meeting last week, we filed a public records request for any communications among board members, Fulton County officials, the state attorney general’s office, and prominent election deniers about the meeting.

On the Records

Arizona Lawmakers’ Push for Hand Counts

This week, Votebeat’s Jen Fifield reported on how conservative lawmakers in Arizona have been pressuring county officials across the state to adopt hand counts, a practice that experts warn is less accurate and more costly. 

• Fifield’s report is based on records obtained by Votebeat as well as emails and texts uncovered by American Oversight through our lawsuit in Cochise County, where Supervisors Peggy Judd and Tom Crosby face criminal charges for delaying the certification of the 2022 midterm results as they sought to institute a hand count.
• Records we obtained include text messages that show a state Sen. David Gowan pushing Judd to hand-count ballots while she was in a meeting about the issue.
• In another text, Gowan appeared to relay a message from then-Senate President Karen Fann, writing, “Does the Cochise bos know there is no law prohibiting them from hand count? From President Fann.”
• Read more about the records we obtained from Cochise County here.

Other Stories We’re Following

Election Denial and Threats to Democracy

• Indicted election deniers from several states are Republican Convention delegates (NPR)
• Election denialism front and center at Republican national convention (Guardian)
• Conservative activists find errors in software they hoped would root out voter fraud (NBC News)
• Conservative groups are pushing to clean voter rolls. Others see an effort to sow election distrust (Associated Press)

Voting Rights

• Tennessee won’t purge voter rolls of people who disregard a letter asking them to prove citizenship (Associated Press)
• Recount results for races still not certified over two months after primary election (Indiana Capital Chronicle)
• Wisconsin’s new rules on ballot drop boxes create opportunity for election challenges and ‘vigilantes’ (Votebeat)
• In Arizona, a court ruling narrows the path for registering to vote without proof of citizenship (Votebeat)

In the States

• Texas’ plantation prisons: Inside a 200-year history of forced labor shrouded in secrecy (Texas Observer)
• Wisconsin law enforcement agencies underutilize gun tracking tools, study finds (Wisconsin Public Radio)
• California says ICE detainees have labor rights. They earn $1 a day scrubbing bathrooms (News from the States)
• States pledged hundreds of troops and spent millions to help Texas at the border so far this year (News from the States)

National News

• Biden seriously considering proposals on Supreme Court term limits, ethics code, AP sources say (Associated Press)
• Sen. Bob Menendez found guilty on all counts, including acting as foreign agent, in federal corruption trial (ABC News)
• Pro-Trump group asks to be removed from Project 2025 advisory board: Sources (ABC News)
• Inside Ziklag, the secret organization of wealthy Christians trying to sway the election and change the country (ProPublica)
• Special counsel appeals judge’s dismissal of Trump documents case (NPR)
• Justice Department drops some January 6 obstruction charges and retools plea deals after Supreme Court ruling (CNN)

LGBTQ Rights

• Federal appeals court dismisses lawsuit over Tennessee’s anti-drag show ban (Associated Press)
• Florida is quietly denying transgender residents updated birth certificates (19th News)
• Appeals court refuses to lift order blocking rule meant to expand protections for LGBTQ+ students (Associated Press)

Abortion and Reproductive Rights

• Vance urged DOJ to enforce Comstock Act, crack down on abortion pills (Washington Post)
• House Democrats call for investigation into crisis pregnancy center funding (The Hill)
• Focus group: Florida swing voters confused by abortion amendment (Axios)
• Florida abortion rights brawl transforms normally boring budget committee into a battleground (Politico)
• Montana judge: Signatures of inactive voters count for initiatives, including 1 to protect abortion (Associated Press)
• Arkansas is sued for rejecting petitions on an abortion-rights ballot measure (Associated Press)
• As Iowa’s ‘fetal heartbeat’ abortion ban looms, clinics prepare for an uncertain future (Des Moines Register)
• Planned Parenthood, ACLU seek Iowa Supreme Court rehearing on abortion case (Iowa Capital Dispatch)
• Ruling keeps abortion question on ballot in South Dakota (Associated Press)

Threats to Education

• School vouchers were supposed to save taxpayer money. Instead they blew a massive hole in Arizona’s budget. (ProPublica)
• Court ruling blocks new Title IX rules in dozens of SC schools (South Carolina Daily Gazette)

Government Transparency and Public Records Law

• Arizona Senate hindered Cyber Ninjas’ efforts to release election records, ‘audit’ leader says (Arizona Republic)
• Texas judge orders sheriff, school district to release Uvalde school shooting records (Texas Tribune)