Afuror has erupted in Georgia over the Aug. 29 launch of a controversial fundraising campaign for the State Election Board (SEB). The crowdfunding effort was started by “Friends of the Georgia State Election Board” led by Kylie Kremer, executive director of Women for America First, acting in her personal capacity. The group has a stated goal of raising over a half million dollars to help fund the general activities of the board, and their efforts have rekindled debate over the struggle for control of the board and its semi-independence from the secretary of state.
The reason for this outside funding effort is that, while the board is dealing with a firestorm of criticism from Democrats, it is also being deliberately hamstrung by some Republicans. In particular, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, Gov. Brian Kemp, and Attorney General Chris Carr have been impeding the board, according to Kremer and donor comments left on her fundraising page.
Raffensperger has recently become openly critical of the board he once chaired over rulemaking and other actions he opposes. Raffensperger has been fiercely criticized by election integrity advocates for his lax handling of the 2020 election. Ironically, one of Georgia election integrity advocates’ biggest criticisms of Raffensperger is his enabling of $41 million in private funding for state election offices, via the controversial “Zuckbucks” grants. Critics say that huge amount of cash allowed partisan operatives to use state resources to run get-out-the-vote operations for Democrats and ultimately narrowly swung the election for President Joe Biden.
Raffensperger has also been accused by election integrity activists — many of whom are former supporters turned critics — like me, Jason Frazier, Kevin Moncla, David Cross, and others — of deliberately suppressing legitimate and consequential cases brought to his office in order to prevent them from being heard by the SEB. Worse, the statute of limitations for many of the 2020 election law violations alleged in those cases will soon expire.
In an email sent to Anna Bower, Senior Editor at Lawfare, which she then posted on X, SEB Chairman John Fervier said the board “has no association with any outside group reportedly raising funds” and “will not be accepting any funds that are raised by outside organizations or groups.”
Board member Dr. Jan Johnston tells me she concurs, adding that “While the State Election Board certainly does need additional funding, it must be done through the proper channels.”
But with Georgia reportedly running a budget surplus of over $2 billion, the most obvious question here is, “Why is this happening?” And that is often followed with, “Can the board even accept the money?”
Hellbound and Down 