Georgia elections chair criticizes ‘activist’ board members

Georgia State Election Board Chair John Fervier slammed his Republican colleagues Monday, after the state passed new election rules regarding hand-counting ballots.

Fervier, in an exclusive interview with The Atlanta Journal-Constitution called his GOP peers “inappropriate and unprofessional.”

“Our job is to clarify law, not create new law,” he said in the interview. “This doesn’t need to be an activist board. This board needs to stay within its boundaries.”

“I’ve seen a lot of that character assassination that’s just inappropriate and unprofessional conduct for a member of this board,” Fervier, who was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp (R), added later.

The interview came out ahead of upcoming court hearings centered on lawsuits aiming to rescind the new rules, which require each ballot to be hand-counted by local precincts, despite concerns from officials. The change, approved less than two months before Election Day, was approved by the board in a 3-2 vote late last month.

While Fervier has branded himself as a “traditional conservative,” according to the Journal-Constitution, he claimed that his GOP colleagues — specifically those backed by former President Trump — have “undermined” his role as the board’s chair.  

“We all represent every voter in Georgia, and we should act like that,” Fervier told the outlet. “This hyper partisanship doesn’t serve anybody, and it certainly doesn’t serve this board. And I think it creates dissension.” 

Janelle King, one of the three Trump-aligned members of the board, voted for the change, previously suggesting that accuracy is more important than timing.  

“I can guarantee you as a voter, I would rather wait another hour to ensure … that the count is accurate than to get a count or get a number within that hour, and then to find out at the close of an election, after certifications have already taken place … that we have people suing because the count was not accurate,” she said after the vote.

Fervier told the Journal-Constitution that hand-counting the ballots could delay results until the morning after Election Day.

Trump praised the new Peach State election rules at a campaign event recently. 

As a swing state in 2024, Georgia has a key role in deciding who will win the White House in November. The former president won the state by 5 points in 2016 but lost it to President Biden in 2020 by less than half a percentage point.