State investigators have determined a member of the State Election Board violated the board’s code of conduct by attending a Donald Trump campaign rally last year at Georgia State University.
The Georgia Office of Inspector General report found that Vice Chair Janice Johnston created an appearance of a conflict of interest by attending a partisan event. Investigators wrote that “a reasonable person could conclude that Johnston was, at minimum, displaying partisan support for a candidate or more significantly, that Johnston had endorsed President Trump.”
Trump lauded members Johnston, Janelle King and Rick Jeffares at the Atlanta rally in August 2024, calling them “pit bulls fighting for honesty, transparency and victory.”
Johnston told Trump “your courage is contagious,” according to the inspector general’s report obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
The findings come as the Republican-controlled board that lawmakers have labeled dysfunctional has been mired in infighting among its members for the past year. The three-member majority bloc pushed through controversial rule changes last year, faced a court ruling for overstepping its authority and continued a multiyear effort to scrutinize the 2020 election.
The report didn’t find evidence members King or Jeffares attended the rally, but it did note the investigation found board members haven’t been trained or provided with board or state policies that they’re expected to abide by.
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
Credit: Arvin Temkar/AJC
In an interview with investigators, Johnston said she received an automated text message asking if she’d like to go to the rally and chose to go, saying that she’d never attended a campaign rally. She told investigators she was “kind of tricked” by being placed so close to the stage.
“Another day, another jab. Dr. Jan has been honest and even-handed in her work, dedicating countless hours to serving this state. She was appointed by the Republican Party and attended a public event as a private citizen,” said King, whose spouse, Kelvin King, is running for secretary of state. “If that’s now considered a violation, so be it. At this point, the constant nitpicking has become normal.”
Investigators also looked into a comment made by Jeffares in which he floated himself as a potential pick for an environmental job in the Trump administration, though he never formally asked for the position.
The report found “a reasonable person might believe that there was an appearance of conflict” while he voted on rules that would affect the 2024 election. However, it said Jeffares was purportedly offered the job before joining the State Election Board and did not violate any policy.
Investigators said that while most board members believe the board is not partisan in how it operates, “some board members’ activities (through political contributions and attendance of partisan events) appear to conflict with this belief.”
Board Chair John Fervier; Sara Tindall Ghazal, the board’s sole Democrat; Jeffares and Johnston did not respond to requests seeking comment.
The majority voting bloc that pushed ahead with a series of last-minute election rule changes last year ran a meeting Tuesday and Wednesday, where they considered another contentious rule, further scrutinized the 2020 election that Trump narrowly lost to Joe Biden and criticized Fervier, a Gov. Brian Kemp appointee.
“Mr. Fervier did not plan the meeting agenda, did not plan or participate in pre-meeting reviews of the cases for the meeting, and has not been in the State Election Board office for five months,” Johnston said.
Fervier and Ghazal were almost entirely absent from the two-day meeting.
Johnston said Fervier told the board he couldn’t attend, citing personal issues. Ghazal, said she was out of town for professional meetings, but she joined via Zoom on Wednesday to weigh in on a rule regarding switching from touchscreen voting machines to hand-marked paper ballots, which died in a 2-2 tie.
The majority voting bloc split on the rule proposal, which had been backed by the Georgia Republican Party. Ghazal and Johnston, a Republican appointee, voted against the petition.
The rule would have established criteria under which the state board, secretary of state or a court could declare the touchscreen voting system illegal, impossible or impracticable, triggering a switch to hand-marked paper ballots.
“This really is the duty and job of the legislators,” Johnston said.
Jeffares and King voted in support of the rule, despite concerns about the board’s authority on the matter. The Georgia Supreme Court decided earlier this year that the board can’t create new election rules that go beyond or contradict state law, invalidating some of its rules passed last year.
The attorney general’s office and some state lawmakers opposed the rule.
The board continued pushing forward with its effort to scrutinize Fulton County’s performance in the 2020 presidential election and its efforts to obtain records it previously subpoenaed.
On Friday, the U.S. Department of Justice significantly escalated efforts to obtain 2020 records in Fulton, filing a lawsuit seeking copies of the county’s ballots from the 2020 election.
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