GOP demands access to Georgia’s election headquarters
A Republican state senator demanded in Fulton County Superior Court on Wednesday that the secretary of state’s office allow observers into its election night reporting center, testifying that failing to do so undermines trust in the electoral process.
State Sen. Greg Dolezal, who is running for lieutenant governor, and two other Republicans have sued to compel Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to admit credentialed poll watchers and State Election Board members into the center for all future elections.
The secretary of state’s attorneys on Wednesday sought to dismiss the lawsuit. Although at least one current state board member had previously been invited to attend election night reporting, Raffensperger’s attorneys said that there is no legal right entitling board members and others to observe election night reporting.
“No polling, no tabulation of votes, no voting occurs at the emergency operation center,” said Alexis Gregorian, an attorney representing Raffensperger.
Vote casting and counting occur at the local level, while state officials receive and publish unofficial vote totals from across Georgia’s 159 counties at the emergency operations center on election night. Secretary of state officials also use the facility to monitor potential threats and other election issues.
The fight is the latest legal twist over election oversight in the wake of President Donald Trump’s narrow 2020 loss in Georgia.
The lawsuit is cast as a way of ensuring election accuracy. But it also serves a political purpose. It comes as Dolezal, who supported efforts to challenge Georgia’s 2020 election, seeks to energize the party’s base ahead of his June 16 runoff against his GOP rival, John F. Kennedy, the former state Senate president pro tempore. Dolezal trailed Kennedy by several points in the May primary.
“I think that having a single part in the process that’s behind a locked door is just bad public policy,” Dolezal said in a recent interview.
Dolezal stopped short of accusing secretary of state staffers of wrongdoing but said transparency would alleviate any concerns. “Sunshine is the best disinfectant,” he said.
Raffensperger has denounced the lawsuit as “Dolezal’s desperate search for press attention and votes.”
During Wednesday’s hearing, Fulton County Superior Court Judge Melynee Leftridge heard arguments from both parties but did not rule on the matter.
Gregorian contended that the wrong people filed the suit, as they are neither observers nor State Election Board members. They also said nothing requires the secretary of state to perform election night reporting duties in public, saying the returns process is separate from the election process.
David Oles — who represented Dolezal, Republican Cobb County Commissioner Keli Gambrill and Christopher Mora, who came in fifth in a GOP primary for the 11th Congressional District — rejected that.
“To illustrate the absurdity of the state’s claim, one only has to ask a simple question: If the secretary fails of his duty to aggregate and resolve any issues and publish results down there in his bunker, is the election completed?” said Oles, who is also a district chairman for the Georgia Republican Party.
Gregorian said casting the center as a “secret bunker” is a mischaracterization.
The three Republicans initially filed the four-page lawsuit hours before the May 19 primary kicked off. A judge first granted, then rescinded, an order granting access.
In an amended lawsuit, the Republicans are again seeking observer access to election night reporting — this time for all future elections. They accused Raffensperger of acting maliciously by refusing observers.
Even before the matter landed in court, a flurry of social media posts from outraged conservatives demanded access for the Republican-controlled State Election Board to the election-night operations center dubbed “the bunker” and suggested, without evidence, that officials could be attempting to hide wrongdoing.
About the Author
Caleb Groves is a general assignment reporter for The Atlanta Journal-Constitution's politics team and a Kennesaw State University graduate.
