A member of the Georgia State Election Board (SEB) participated in and voted on cases involving counties that he was a registered lobbyist for, The Federalist has learned.
In Georgia, members of the State Election Board are required to “avoid any appearance of conflict and/or impropriety,” according to the board’s Code of Conduct. In fact, members are expected to recuse themselves from any matter before the SEB in which the member or member’s employer has provided services to a “respondent, complainant, or witness.”
Georgia law also prohibits members of state boards from “engag[ing] in any business with the government, either directly or indirectly, which is inconsistent with the conscientious performance of his governmental duties.”
However, it appears SEB member Edward Lindsey voted on matters brought before the board involving DeKalb and Cobb Counties. Both counties appear to have contracted with a law firm where Lindsey is a registered lobbyist, according to lobbyist disclosure reports.
Disclosure reports also list the DeKalb County government and Cobb County government among Lindsey’s direct lobbying clients, but when asked to confirm that fact, Lindsey did not give a direct answer. Instead, he told The Federalist “I have in the past taken the position regarding the counties in question that since the counties’ election operations were governed by law by an independent County Election Board — which my firm does not represent — that there was no conflict.”
Lindsey was appointed to serve on the SEB by Georgia’s Republican-controlled House of Representatives
