Atlanta – Republican members of the Georgia State Election Board have gone rogue to set up a meeting today for 4:00 PM without public notice and seemingly without input from the Board’s Chair. Their actions are not in compliance with Georgia law which requires the Board Chair to give prior notice to each Board Member of the time and place of each meeting. Fair Fight released the following statements in response:

“Today’s state election board ‘meeting’ is a farce — deliberately scheduled when all Members could not attend and without input from the Chair. Masquerading as official business, the sham meeting set up by the Republican Members is an effort by the MAGA operation to advance their election sabotage scheme ahead of November. From fake electors to fake election board meetings, Georgians should take notice as MAGA continues their 2020 efforts to subvert our freedom to vote and mess with our elections,” said Lauren Groh-Wargo, Fair Fight CEO.

“Any meeting of the Georgia State Election Board today has not been publicly noticed and is apparently moving forward without the Board Chair at a time when not all members can attend. O.C.G.A § 21-2-30(e) requires the Board Chair to give prior notice to each Board Member of the time and place of each meeting — there is no indication that Chair Fervier has done so. Because the meeting is not in compliance with Georgia law, any actions taken during the meeting are subject to challenge,” said Allegra Lawrence-Hardy, Fair Fight Legal Counsel and Senior Advisor.

O.C.G.A § 21-2-30(e) requires Georgia State Election Board Chair John Fervier to give the notice to other Board Members (even in the situation where two Members, rather than the Chair, have called the meeting). The statute says:

“Meetings shall be held whenever necessary for the performance of the duties of the board on call of the chairperson or whenever any two of its members so request. Minutes shall be kept of all meetings of the board and a record kept of the vote of each member on all questions coming before the board. The chairperson shall give to each member of the board prior notice of the time and place of each meeting of the board.”

Background: Today’s sham meeting of the Georgia State Election Board, called by Republican Board Members, comes on the heels of a Tuesday meeting where a proposed amendment to an election rule that would grant elections officials greater power to dispute election results was moved forward. The proposed rule amendment follows recent refusals from Republican county election board members to certify election results despite there being no problems or legitimate doubts about the results.

MAGA Election Sabotage Scheme: The State Election Board's decision to advance the rule change continues a worrisome trend that could lay the groundwork for county election board members to refuse to certify results and potentially sow chaos this November. These developments in Georgia illustrate how the MAGA operation’s national election sabotage scheme is taking shape in other battleground states like Arizona, Michigan, and Nevada, where there have been recent efforts by Republican elected officials to delay or refuse certification.

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