Georgia’s election chairman criticizes ‘activist’ board members

John Fervier, chairman of the Georgia State Election Board, criticized his Republican colleagues on Monday after the state adopted new election rules regarding the manual counting of ballots.

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

“Our job is to clarify the law, not to create new laws,” he said in the interview. “This does not have to be an activist board. This administration must remain within its boundaries.”

“I have seen many of these character assassinations that are simply inappropriate and unprofessional behavior for a member of this council,” Fervier, who was appointed by Gov. Brian Kemp (R), later added.

The interview emerged ahead of upcoming court hearings that focused on lawsuits seeking to repeal the new rules, which require each ballot to be manually counted by local precincts, despite concerns from officials. The change, which was approved less than two months before Election Day, was approved by the board on a 3-2 vote late last month.

Although Fervier has labeled himself a “traditional conservative,” according to the Journal-Constitution, he claimed that his Republican colleagues — particularly those endorsed by former President Trump — have “undermined” his role as chairman of the board.

“We all represent every voter in Georgia, and that is how we should act,” Fervier told the newspaper. “This hyper-partisanship serves no one, and certainly not this administration. And I think it creates division.”

Janelle King, one of three Trump members of the board, voted in favor of the change and previously suggested that accuracy is more important than timing.

“I can guarantee you as a voter that I would rather wait another hour to make sure … that the count is accurate, than get a count or a number within that hour, and then find out at the end of a election, after certifications have already taken place… that there are people who are suing because the count was wrong,” she said after the vote.

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

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

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

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