ATLANTA — Georgia's State Election Board will meet Monday morning, with the meeting agenda indicating the board will vote on new election rules previously endorsed by the board.
The board's virtual meeting will be held at 9 a.m. and will be accessible via this link. The meeting ID and passcode are available at the meeting agenda listing here.
On the agenda for Monday's meeting is a rule endorsed with a vote in July that would require a hand count at the end of voting days to verify the vote totals given by machines. With a 3-1 vote last month, the board voted to initially forward the rule submitted by Sharlene Alexander, a Fayette County election board member.
The version of that rule on the agenda for Monday amends Rule 183-1-12-.12(a)(5) and provides for how a poll manager and two poll officers shall count ballots at the end of voting days.
The trio, the proposed rule states, shall: "unseal and open each scanner ballot box, remove the paper ballots from each ballot box, record the date and time that the ballot box was emptied and present to three sworn precinct poll officers to independently count the total number of ballots removed from the scanner, sorting into stacks of 50 ballots, continuing until all of the ballots have been counted separately by each of the three poll officers. When all three poll officers arrive at the same total ballot count independently, they shall each sign a control document containing the polling place, ballot scanner serial number, election name, printed name with signature and date and time of the ballot hand count. If the numbers recorded on the precinct poll pads, ballot marking devices [BMDs] and scanner recap forms do not reconcile with the hand count ballot totals, the poll manager shall immediately determine the reason for the inconsistency; correct the inconsistency, if possible; and fully document the inconsistency or problem along with any corrective measures taken."
A second rule, requiring the public publishing of reconciliation reports by each county, is also on the agenda. That rule similarly was endorsed in July.
The State Election Board's actions have taken on a higher profile recently with a conservative majority of the board more receptive to activist demands -- largely tied to continued anger over the 2020 election result in Georgia -- for changes to election administration rules.
Former President Donald Trump highlighted the three board members -- Dr. Janice Johnston, Janelle King and Rick Jeffares -- who have steered the board toward endorsing various rule changes submitted by the public, calling them "pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory."
The board has five members: one appointed by the state House, one chosen by the state Senate, one each from the Republican and Democratic parties, and a nonpartisan chair selected by the General Assembly or by the governor if the General Assembly is not in session when there is a vacancy.
Conservative media personality King was appointed by the House in May, sealing Republican partisan control. Dr. Johnston, a retired obstetrician and frequent critic of elections in deeply Democratic Fulton County, was appointed by the state GOP in 2022. And Jeffares, a former lawmaker close to Trump-aligned Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, was appointed earlier this year by the Senate.
Earlier this month, the board voted 3-2 to ask state Attorney General Chris Carr to investigate the Fulton County government over the 2020 election, seeking to reopen an inquiry closed in May.
