Three right-wing Republicans behind a series of rules changes praised by former President Donald Trump face intensifying political pressure as the State Election Board considers new rules for ballot-counting and election certification at its Monday meeting.
Georgia House Democrats prepared an urgent appeal Monday to House Speaker Jon Burns to remove his appointee to the board. Fulton County’s former elections board chief filed an ethics complaint against the trio that alleges a series of violations.
And Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, blasted pending proposals up for debate by the five-member board as a last-minute “effort to impose new rulemaking” that could cause chaos.
Meanwhile, the trio was dealt a blow on Monday when Attorney General Chris Carr issued a formal opinion finding that the board can’t order him to reopen an investigation into Fulton County’s 2020 recount because state law doesn’t empower the board to do so….
The increasing scrutiny comes weeks after Trump lauded the trio at his Atlanta rally, calling them “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory” to deafening applause from thousands of supporters.
The three board members — Janelle King, Rick Jeffares and Janice Johnston — comprise a majority bloc that has plowed ahead with election rules changes less than two months before early voting begins.
Jeffares, meanwhile, has attracted even more attention after disclosing last week that he has floated himself for an environmental job in a second Trump administration, though he told The Atlanta Journal-Constitution he never formally asked for the job.
Cathy Woolard, the former chair of Fulton’s elections board, cited Jeffares in an ethics complaint that alleged the three “have created, at minimum, the appearance that their actions are intended to advance their own political preference.”
“Taken together,” she wrote to Gov. Brian Kemp, “these actions pose a serious risk of creating confusion about the rules governing the rapidly approaching election and undermining voter confidence in the integrity of Georgia’s elections.”