When it’s not busy bickering, the State Election Board keeps trying to insert itself into Georgia’s voting process even after the state Supreme Court reduced its power this spring.
The board’s two-day meeting last week was marked by arguments over manhood, attempts to subpoena ballots from the 2020 election and efforts to end no-excuse absentee voting.
The Republican-controlled board also debated a rule that would give itself the power to eliminate Georgia’s voting touchscreens, fought over the chair’s authority, and proposed that lawmakers shorten voting deadlines for military and overseas voters.
All these squabbles came after the Georgia Supreme Court ruled that the board lacks the ability to create new election rules — such as statewide hand ballot counts and inquiries before certifying results — that go further than state laws. The high court said only legislators elected by the people can make those kinds of laws.
Instead, the unelected board members continued pushing partisan agendas and grievances over the election five years ago that President Donald Trump narrowly lost.
The three Republicans who make up the board’s majority — the same ones Trump praised as “pit bulls” at a campaign rally last year — are at war with their Republican chair, whose only support at times comes from the board’s lone Democrat. Members of both political parties have said at legislative hearings the board is “dysfunctional.”
The board’s disputes boiled over Wednesday when the majority’s hand-picked executive director, James Mills, challenged Chair John Fervier to “be a man” and relinquish power over posting meeting schedules online.
“The chairman is unwilling to do the will of the majority,” Mills said. “You can be a man and accept that, or you can deny it, but that’s the truth.”
Fervier said he would work with the board’s majority, but he said it’s his job to review meeting notices before posting them.
“I don’t need you to sit up here and question my manhood,” said Fervier, who was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp. “Are you ready to move on, or do you want to keep beating this dead horse?”…