Settlement Forces Transparency from Election Deniers on Georgia Board

By Yunior Rivas

Georgia Election Board member Janice Johnston voted Sept. 23 in favor of the board opening an investigation into eight county boards that review mass voter eligibility challenges filed predominantly by conservative residents. Ross Williams/Georgia Recorder

Georgia’s election board has agreed to stop conducting its business in secret after a settlement with a government watchdog group. The deal represents a major win for transparency as Republican election deniers on the board ramp up efforts to restrict voting ahead of the 2026 elections. 

The State Election Board (SEB) ended a year-long lawsuit by American Oversight Wednesday after the group had exposed how board members used private emails and messaging apps to discuss election rules in violation of the state’s Open Records and Open Meetings Acts.

Under the agreement, the board must use government email accounts for all communications, preserve every record and pay $50,000 in legal fees. The deal forces the board to follow the very transparency laws it is supposed to uphold.

“When officials who continue to challenge the results of the 2020 election are put in charge of ensuring ‘fair, legal and orderly elections’ in Georgia — but do so behind closed doors — the integrity of our elections is at risk,” Chioma Chukwu, executive director of American Oversight, said in a statement. “No Georgian should have to question whether they’ll be disenfranchised simply because those administering elections disagree with their views. Today’s settlement makes clear that election officials are not above the law — they must comply with state transparency requirements, and if they don’t, they will be held accountable.”

The board’s vice chair, Janice Johnson, a Republican and longtime election denier, was at the center of the lawsuit. Johnson and other GOP members have spent the past years pushing a slate of anti-voting policies — from ending no-excuse absentee voting to pulling Georgia out of the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a bipartisan system used to ensure accurate voter rolls. 

Voting rights advocates and election experts have criticized the board’s moves as part of a broad GOP campaign to restrict voting access and cast doubt on legitimate results.

This settlement forces the board to keep its work accessible to the public and reinforces public trust in a system still haunted by 2020 election denial lies.