A Fulton County election official has asked Gov. Brian Kemp to remove three members of the State Election Board and its executive director over actions that may have violated Georgia’s open meetings law.
On Friday, three Republican members of the state board — Janelle King, Rick Jeffares and Janice Johnston — and the board’s executive director, former GOP lawmaker Mike Coan, held an impromptu meeting to approve new election rules in advance of November’s hotly contested presidential election. The move came after the state attorney general’s office warned the board that the meeting could violate the Georgia Open Meetings Act.
On Monday, Fulton County Election Board Chair Cathy Woolard asked Kemp to remove the three state board members and Coan, citing alleged violations of the state ethics code and meetings law. Woolard said she filed the complaint in a personal capacity, not as chair of the election board.
A spokesman for Kemp said his office is reviewing the letter and declined to comment further comment. The board members and Coan could not immediately be reached for comment.
In the letter, Woolard asked Kemp to “investigate this illegal meeting, declare any actions taken during this illegal meeting to be null and void and to remove those members and the executive director participating in this meeting from their respective positions and replace them with SEB members and staff who will adhere to the law at all times.”
At Friday’s meeting, the three board members said they needed to approve the rules that day to keep the proposed rules alive. One rule would expand access to partisan poll watchers during the counting of ballots following an election. Another would require all county election boards to post daily online ballot counts on county websites.
Kemp’s appointee, Chairman John Fervier, and Democratic appointee Sara Tindall Ghazal did not attend the meeting. Ghazal said the meeting appeared to be deliberately scheduled at a time when they could not attend.
The attorney general’s office informed the board Thursday that the meeting might violate a state law that requires state boards to publish notices of non-emergency meetings at least seven days in advance. Meetings deemed an emergency or a “special circumstance” by the board can be held with less than 24 hours’ notice.
On Friday, King said the meeting was legitimate because notice was announced more than 24 hours in advance. The meeting was announced on a sheet of paper on the door of the Capitol meeting room — but not in advance on the State Election Board meeting website.
Staff writers Maya T. Prabhu and Caleb Groves contributed to this article.
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