by Dave Williams | Capitol Beat News Service
ATLANTA – The State Election Board voted unanimously Tuesday to rescind preliminary approval of two rules changes and decide those matters instead at the board’s next meeting on Aug. 6.
Board members held a special called meeting Tuesday after a watchdog group filed a lawsuit charging the board with violating Georgia’s Open Meetings Act for meeting July 12 without the legally required public notice or a quorum. State Attorney General Chris Carr also expressed concerns that the meeting was illegal.
At the July 12 meeting, the board’s three Republicans gave preliminary approval to rules changes that would require local election officials to post daily updates on their websites and inside polling places during early voting and give poll watchers greater access on election nights while votes are being processed.
Action on the two rules had been postponed from three days earlier when the board’s regularly scheduled meeting ran long.
On Tuesday, board member Dr. Janice Johnston argued that the board recessed the July 9 meeting to July 12 in “good faith” and “in keeping with Georgia law.” Johnston, who made the motion Tuesday to rescind the July 12 actions and decide them instead on Aug. 6, said she did so in response to a “weirdly overdramatic alarm” that was raised about those votes.
She said the board’s goal is to provide elections that are “transparent, fair, free, uniform, and orderly.”
Under the schedule agreed upon Tuesday, the board will hold preliminary votes on the two proposed rules changes on Aug. 6. If approved then, a final vote would take place on Aug. 19.
Chioma Chukwu, interim executive director of American Oversight, the group that filed the lawsuit, criticized the quick turnaround after Tuesday’s vote.
“We’re pleased that our lawsuit, along with pressure from partner organizations on the ground in Georgia, has prompted the board to withdraw the illegally approved rules from its sham July 12 meeting,” she said.
“However, we remain deeply concerned by the board’s decision to promptly revisit these problematic measures — including those coordinated with the state and national GOP — that serve to intimidate election workers and grant partisan advantage to preferred candidates this November.”
