COFFEE COUNTY, Ga. — The chairman of Coffee County’s election board resigned Monday after grassroots organizers alleged he was ineligible to serve and that he “misrepresented facts” under oath about the 2021 copying of election software now featured prominently in the indictment of Donald Trump and 18 others.
Wendell Stone told 11Alive that he left his post on the election board after county attorneys informed him that his employment at South Georgia State College violates the board’s bylaws.
He denied any other allegations made by the group. Those allegations played no role in his resignation, Stone said.
“It’s been explained to me by the attorneys — yeah, it’s a violation,” he said. “I don’t want there to be a violation of the law."
“This is a policy violation. …I don’t have anything to hide,” Stone added. ”I didn’t take part in the breach. I didn’t know about the breach.”
Stone’s resignation comes less than a week after the Coalition for Good Governance, a nonprofit organization focusing on election transparency and security activism, sent documents to the Coffee County Board of Commissioners and the election board demanding Stone’s removal.
Aside from questioning his eligibility, the group demanded Stone’s resignation, arguing his actions demonstrated “a failure to protect the public’s interest in the proper administration of elections and the oversight of the Coffee County elections.”
Stone alleges he was unfairly targeted by the group and founder Marilyn Marks, who are part of a yearslong lawsuit against Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger over the security of Georgia’s electronic voting machines.
Stone told 11Alive that he was not interviewed as part of the GBI's Coffee County investigation. However, a defense attorney representing board members pointed law enforcement to Stone's deposition as part of that lawsuit, he said.
The agency turned its case file over to Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr last month.
“This is just a convenient way to get me out of the way. (Marks and her group) see me as an impediment to what they really want — the implementation of hand-marked paper ballots (in Georgia,)” Stone said. “That’s the way I see it.”
The allegations
Among the accusations made, the group alleged that Stone was ineligible to serve on the board because he works for South Georgia State College, a public college with campuses in Douglas and Waycross.
11Alive confirmed Stone is a part-time faculty member and part-time field supervisor in the college’s elementary and special education program. He’s worked at South Georgia State since 2019, and the college is a part of the University System of Georgia.
Stone, who has served on the board since 2017 and became chairman in January, said he was unaware of the qualification rules. County bylaws prevent members of the election board from being employed by or working directly for “ any agency of state government or Coffee County.”
“I didn’t know that. It’s never been called into question," Stone told 11Alive. "I can’t work at the election board because I have a part-time job at the college. That in itself just sounds ridiculous.”
County Administrator Wesley Vickers told 11Alive that Stone resigned Monday. It’s unclear when his replacement will be selected. Members of the Coffee County election board are nominated and confirmed by the county commission.
Marks told 11Alive she was pleased that Stone will resign. She denied allegations that their request for Stone's removal was tied to her group's advocacy for hand-marked paper ballots.
“We are pleased that Mr. Stone will be tendering his resignation and making way for a new member to be appointed at a time that the board clearly needs new direction and unwavering commitment to fully transparent activities," Marks said in a statement.
The Coalition for Good Governance also alleges that Stone was not truthful during a September 2022 deposition about the Coffee County breaches. The deposition was taken as part of the group’s lawsuit against Raffensperger, and Stone provided testimony on behalf of the county election board.
In an interview with 11Alive, Stone denied allegations that he wasn’t candid during his deposition.
“I told them when they asked for somebody (from the election board) to come for the deposition that I, very likely, may not know the answer to many of the questions that they were going to ask me,” Stone said. ”They knew that up front. And see, now they’ve turned it around that I’m not prepared to answer questions.”
In last year’s testimony, Stone said that there had been “no communication” between the election board and the Secretary of State’s Office about the copying of election data on Jan. 7, 2021.
“Even now, nobody’s really called us and told us that a crime has been committed,” Stone said. “I mean, I’m not crazy. I can see the news and see that crimes have been committed. But the Secretary of State hasn’t notified us, lately, of anything.”
However, the Coalition for Good Governance alleges that Stone learned of the breach well before his deposition. Board members were informed through county attorneys that the Secretary of State’s Office planned to interview them about the breach more than a month before Stone's deposition, the group said.
The group also produced text messages and pointed to testimony from secretary of state officials that showed county attorneys and Raffensperger’s office had previously discussed claims of a breach.
The Secretary of State's Office did have some interviews scheduled as part of its Coffee County investigation. However, those interviews did not take place because the State Election Board turned over the investigation to the GBI in the summer of 2022, said Mike Hassinger, a spokesperson for the Secretary of State's Office. Hassinger did not say if those planned interviews had been scheduled with board members.
When asked about the messages, Stone said he may not have realized the “significance of the communications at that time.”
“Everything was so new at that point,” he said. “I don’t know why I would have said that, but as the attorneys have pointed out – they sent back texts to the Secretary of State (Office). So our attorneys knew about it … at that point.”
Further, the group alleges that Stone reviewed video of the breaches earlier than he testified.
During his deposition, Stone said that he’d only seen January 2021 security video of the election office’s exterior door “only recently.”
However, the group alleges that Stone reviewed video of the breach in county administrator Wesley Vickers’ office before an “improper closed-door executive session” of the election board on February 25, 2021. That same day, officials accepted the resignation of elections supervisor Misty Hampton for allegedly falsifying timecard records.
Hampton was among those indicted by a Fulton County grand jury over the breach last month.
Stone told 11Alive that he did review some video footage in Vickers’ office to determine if Hampton falsified records. Stone said he saw people enter the election office on the video, but officials didn’t know who they were at that time.
Stone added there were either some video or still shots that he hadn’t seen until just before his 2022 deposition.
“It does not call into question the truth of my testimony. I was not looking for anything. We weren’t at that time,” he said. “This is going to sound terrible but we weren't concerned with anything like that. We were trying to verify the time that Misty arrived. People were in the office. They were behind the counter. The video doesn’t have audio with it. And so, I saw people in there. I assumed they were conducting legitimate business as directed by Misty, who was in charge of the elections office.”
Marks told 11Alive that Stone "was not responsibly prepared for his deposition, and failed to answer many important questions, as attorneys noted on the record.”
What's the latest in Coffee County?
Stone’s resignation comes roughly a month after the GBI turned over its Coffee County case file to Attorney General Carr's office.
Critics of the investigation have accused the Georgia Secretary of State’s Office and others of slow-walking the investigation. The GBI has scoured evidence from Coffee County since late last year.
It’s unclear if additional people will be prosecuted.
“We continue to coordinate with the GBI on this investigation. However, because this is still an open and active matter, we are unable to discuss specifics about the case at this time,” AG spokesperson Kara Richardson told 11Alive in a statement. “I do also want to note that we have not shared the investigative file with the Fulton DA or any other prosecutorial office.”
Stone told 11Alive that some board members were interviewed by the GBI as part of its investigation, but he was not one of them. A criminal defense attorney representing the county told the GBI that Stone would not participate, instead directing law enforcement to his deposition, Stone said.
“I was following the advice of counsel,” Stone said. “That’s the truth.”
Four people were indicted in Fulton County for their alleged roles in the 2021 Coffee County data breaches.
They are:
• Sidney Powell: A former federal prosecutor, Powell joined the legal team formed to challenge the 2020 election results on Trump’s behalf. Powell coordinated with Atlanta-based forensic data firm SullivanStrickler to allegedly copy the data. She faces seven counts, including conspiracy to commit election fraud and conspiracy to commit computer trespass.
• Cathy Latham: The former GOP chair of Coffee County. Video reviewed by 11Alive shows Latham escorting operatives working with Powell through the county’s election office in early January 2021. They accessed and copied state software and election data. She was one of 16 Republicans who served as Trump presidential electors. She faces 11 charges tied to both.
• Scott Graham Hall: An Atlanta-area businessman, Hall faces seven charges related to the accessing and copying of election data in Coffee County.
• Misty Hampton aka Emily Misty Hayes: The election director in Coffee County, the data copying occurred under her watch. Hampton faces seven charges.
