State Election Board passes rule seeking access to secretary of state’s election night ‘bunker’

(Georgia Recorder) — Georgia’s State Election Board has passed a rule aimed at granting board members access to the secretary of state’s election night hub, defying a warning from the attorney general’s office that such a rule would exceed the board’s authority.

The measure passed in a 3-2 vote Wednesday, with three Republican-aligned members voting to adopt the rule and the sole Democratic appointee and the chairman opposing it. The board also passed a separate rule aimed at defining what counts as a vote and how those votes should be tallied.

The proposed rule was introduced by board member Salleigh Grubbs, who also serves as the first vice chair of the Georgia Republican Party. It coincides with an ongoing legal effort to give parties, board members and poll watchers access to the state’s emergency operations center, where the secretary of state’s election night reporting activities are conducted.

No ballot counting takes place on site and the hub is not a polling place, early voting location or tabulation center, which the attorney general’s office has said exempts the area from state laws requiring poll watchers to have access to the areas where votes are being counted.

Nevertheless, conservative election integrity activists have repeatedly tried to gain access to the area, which they call a “secret bunker,” arguing that public oversight is needed to ensure that voters have confidence in the outcome of the election.

“We’re not saying that anything that goes on there is nefarious or bad, but we want to make sure that the process is so clean that it couldn’t occur,” said newly-appointed board member Carolyn Roddy, who recently ran for a seat on Georgia’s Public Service Commission but lost in the District 5 Republican primary.

But both the chairman and the board’s sole Democratic appointee warned that the new rule would contradict guidance from the attorney general’s office, which warned in a May 12 letter that the board did not have the authority to pass or implement the rule.

“The attorney general does not believe that it is statutorily our ability to do this, and I always follow the advice of the attorney general, since they’re the ones who represent us,” Chairman John Fervier said.

Board member Sara Tindall Ghazal added that a court also denied the board’s attempt to gain access to the election night hub. Fulton County Judge Ural Glanville briefly granted a request from three GOP candidates to give election observers and State Election Board representatives access to the hub during the May 19 primary election, but rescinded the order hours later. The plaintiffs have appealed the case to the Georgia Court of Appeals.

“I just cannot support overextending our legal authority when both the AG and a court have said that there is no right to this, and the State Election Board has been told time and time again that we do not have the authority to oversee a constitutional office,” Ghazal said.

Robert Sinners, a spokesperson for the secretary of state’s office, criticized the board’s decision to approve the rule.

“The courts have informed them multiple times that they cannot pass rules contrary to Georgia law,” Sinners said. “Apparently they have not learned their lesson.”

The panel is primarily tasked with overseeing cases involving potential violations of election laws and issuing guidance to help elections run more smoothly, though members cannot bypass the will of the Legislature. In June, the state Supreme Court permanently blocked four rules passed by the board, stating that the panel could not implement rules that went beyond the scope of Georgia’s election laws.

The board’s next meeting is scheduled for Aug. 19.