Georgia State Election Board member raises money online for legal defense

An online fundraising campaign for Georgia State Election Board Vice Chair Janice Johnston has raised more than $30,000 for her legal defense in a lawsuit that alleges she blocked access to public records.

Critics say the fundraiser on the Christian-oriented platform GiveSendGo creates potential conflicts of interest because the Georgia woman behind the effort and potentially some donors have direct stakes in decisions made by Johnston and the board.

So far, the campaign has raised more than $30,000, with the largest contribution — $10,000 — coming from an anonymous donor. Two donations appear to come from county election board members in metro Atlanta counties, with one contributing $100 and another $300. Neither of the two responded to email requests for comment.

The campaign’s webpage said Johnston, the Georgia Republican Party’s appointee to the election board, is being unfairly targeted by American Oversight, a left-leaning government watchdog group.

“They’ve filed an unnecessary lawsuit against her, and now, she’s having to fight these battles out of her own pocket!” the page reads. “It’s wrong, it’s unjust, and it’s downright un-American.”

American Oversight filed the lawsuit against the State Election Board and Johnston in Fulton County Superior Court in late October last year. The group alleged the board has obstructed public records requests for information about voter eligibility challenges, communications with outside organizations and voter citizenship verification.

Some donors to Johnston’s legal fight have the same name as conservative election activists in Georgia, some of whom have filed voter registration challenges before their local county election boards.

Salleigh Grubbs, the first vice-chair of the Georgia Republican Party, said she set up the online fundraising campaign but has not contributed money.

Grubbs also has had business before the State Election Board. Last month, she presented a bipartisan proposal with Morgan County Democratic Party Chair Jeanne Dufort. The board took up the proposal at a board meeting in October.

The proposal would establish criteria under which the State Election Board could declare Georgia’s touchscreen voting system illegal, impossible or impracticable, potentially triggering a switch to paper ballots filled out by hand.

Grubbs said setting up the GiveSendGo page is not a conflict of interest with her business before the board.

“It would be different if I had contributed money or anything like that, but I haven’t,” she said.

But critics don’t buy that.

“It’s an obvious conflict of interest for a person who is presenting a proposal to the SEB to also be raising money for a member of the State Election Board,” said State Rep. Saira Draper, D-Atlanta.

Draper said anonymous donations could present additional conflicts of interest, although the public wouldn’t know.

“The public has a right to know who is giving money to these members of the State Election Board who are making decisions about various proposals and election investigations,” she said.

GiveSendGo has been used by extremist groups to raise money, including the Proud Boys. An analysis by the Anti-Defamation League found extremist groups raised $5.4 million on the platform from 2016 to 2022.

American Oversight filed suit after a series of contentious election rule changes passed by the board ahead of the 2024 presidential election. Some were rejected by the Georgia Supreme Court. The court decided that the board lacks the authority to make new election rules that go beyond state law.

The group also contends Johnston has prevented agency employees from searching her email to obtain requested documents.

Most government documents are required to be made available under Georgia’s Open Records Act. That includes communications from personal accounts if they’re used to conduct public business.

“The fact is that elections boards, in particular, must be transparent about their processes for the public to believe what’s happening is worthy of their trust,” said Richard T. Griffith of the Georgia First Amendment Foundation.

All of the board members have used Gmail accounts to conduct official business.

Johnston and State Election Board member Janelle King, who is also named in the suit, have said they follow open records laws, but that they’re not willing to share their email accounts with government records employees.

“Just because we’re working together doesn’t mean I know you,” King told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I’m very cautious when it comes to where I give my personal information.”

She said she never had a problem fulfilling open records requests that were presented to her.

“If it’s required that I hand over my email password, then, I mean, we’re going to have a problem every time, because I’m just never going to do that,” said King, who was appointed by Georgia House Speaker Jon Burns.

Johnston did not respond to multiple requests for comment.