Georgians who care about election integrity have criticized the State Election Board (SEB) for failing to right the problems that were on display in Georgia’s elections in 2020. Tasked with “Investigating the administration of elections and frauds” and “Developing rules and regulations about what constitutes” a legal vote, among other things, the board has a great deal of power in Georgia’s elections.
Until recently, the board has shown a lack of enthusiasm for decisively addressing election integrity concerns — but now control of the board appears to be shifting.
When the board convened on July 9, a new member, Janelle King, sat in the seat formerly held by Ed Lindsey. Lindsey, appointed by Georgia’s GOP House in 2022, stepped down in May, months after it was revealed he had lobbied on behalf of DeKalb and Cobb Counties but failed to recuse himself from ruling on cases involving those counties. Lindsey was also part of the board’s decision not to refer scandal-plagued Fulton County for investigation after the county double-scanned thousands of ballots in its 2020 recount. And in February of this year, the board voted in favor of no-excuse absentee voting — a practice many election experts view as insecure.
The board is comprised of one appointee each from the State House, State Senate, the Democratic Party, and the Republican Party, with the chairman appointed by the governor. Now that Lindsey is gone, the board includes Democratic Party appointee Sarah Tindall Ghazal, outspoken election integrity advocate Dr. Janice Johnston, former
