|
June 6, 2024
Coffee Voters and Friends,
We’re providing local voters with a detailed report of how the Coffee Board of Elections is currently handling the theft of the voting system software, and unauthorized access to highly restricted equipment and documents in the 2021 breaches. We at CGG believe it is important that the local citizens understand the more than just the headlines, so they can take action there in Coffee County.
Tuesday’s Election Board Meeting—Delaying Tactics Continue
Tuesday’s Coffee Board of Elections meeting was a big disappointment for Coffee citizens looking the long-promised transparency and facts about the January 2021 theft of the state’s voting system software and Coffee County data and voting equipment tampering that pose a threat to Georgia’s 2024 election. Although there was an agenda item to address the engagement of independent counsel to impartially investigate the breaches, Chairman Andy Thomas pulled the topic from the agenda, yet again delaying any chance of Coffee voters getting answers about the full cast of characters involved in the breaches and how they occurred. Instead, he permitted long-time member Matt McCullough to defend the board’s inaction and declare that the Board has no knowledge of anything wrong being done. A bizarre crazy-making board discussion ensued as covered below, and can be seen in the meeting video.
Despite requests from newest board member Troy Schley and Vice-Chair Paula Scott to deal with the long-festering issues, Chairman Thomas said that more time was needed to research citizens' requests for the board to initiate an investigation by independent counsel, as if the last year has not been adequate.
The Board repeatedly promised over the last year that it would begin operating transparently and would undertake an investigation once the GBI investigation was completed. But there was never a reason to delay an urgently needed internal investigation. The highly flawed and superficial GBI report was completed last August, more than 10 months ago, taking away the superficial excuse. Yet the Board’s majority still shows little interest in getting to the bottom of the largest voting system breach in the nation’s history.
$175,000 + $???,??? in legal bills for the Board’s 10 months of fighting transparency
Retired local attorney Jim Hudson challenged the board's last 10 months of spending of $175,000 in legal fees paid to the Board’s law firm Oliver Maner, primarily for litigation defending the Board’s refusal to produce records related to the breaches sought under subpoenas in Coalition for Good Governance’s Curling case. In October 2023, we filed legal action against the Board again seeking improperly withheld records, and we now seek sanctions against the Board and its long time attorney Hall, Booth, Smith for their misconduct and wrongful actions in concealing of at least several hundred relevant documents. The case has not been decided by the court.
Hudson raised the issue that Oliver Maner appears to be billing the Board for defending both the Board and Hall Booth Smith against our claim for sanctions for misconduct, while Hudson says it seems inappropriate for Oliver Maner to be representing HBS.
But strangely, Hall Booth Smith, the long-time attorneys for the county, spending hundreds of hours defending the Board in court filings and acting as unnecessary middle-man on all public records requests, have not sent the county a bill since at least January 2023 according to public records request responses. The county reported that there is no written documentation of the reason that at least 17 months of legal work have not been billed to the county or recorded as a potential liability of the county. Is a bill for a few hundred thousand more about to drop for the taxpayers to fund?
The real question is—why does the Board have any legitimate interest using taxpayer funds to fight disclosure of documents about how the breaches happened and who was involved? They are spending significant amounts of public funds to aggressively continue to keep the public in the dark. The five people on the Board are the decision-makers keeping the information concealed from the public, but there are few calls for accountability of their decision-making.
More Denials and Disinformation from the Board
You can watch the entire meeting here. You will hear false claims and some interesting denials related to former Board Member Eric Chaney’s involvement as we detail below.
Jim Hudson alleges multiple conflicts of interest the board’s county attorneys are engaged in by representing multiple parties involved in the breaches. Timestamp: 1:16:45. The Board seems to have little appetite for understanding the allegations of serious ethical conflicts and impacts on the Board or the public interests they are sworn to serve.
Let’s debunk some of the disinformation you will see in the meeting video:
Matt McCullough claims that Oliver Maner has no choice but to represent Hall Booth Smith defending themselves against CGG’s seeking sanctions. [timestamp 1:23:00] That is certainly false. If an attorney has a conflict, they have “no choice” but to resign. Hudson makes the point that the Board should not be paying Oliver Maner to defend HBS, and they should have their own counsel.
McCullough launches a diatribe defending the board’s lack of attention to the problems of the breaches. [timestamp 1:25:50]
McCullough states that the only current board members on the board during the breaches, and Chairman Thomas interrupts, seeming to say that he was not on the board until after the breaches. That is untrue. Thomas joined the board at the beginning of January 2021 and participated in the Board’s hands-on January 5, 2021 ballot counting just before the January 7, 18-19, and 25-29 breaches.
McCullough claims that the Board cannot control their own attorney Tony Rowell. (1:26:00) and how he chooses to represent the board, even in the face of alleged conflicts of interest. Obviously the board is the boss and is the client. Why are they pretending that Rowell is the boss setting direction, and not obeying their wishes?
His claim that Secretary of State people were present at the January 7, 2021 breach and pictured on video is totally false. (1:28:00) Shockingly, he goes on to claim that no one gave people permission to do anything wrong in those visits, and that the board knows of no one doing anything wrong during those visits!
Outrageously, he says that the board’s biggest problem is “being kept in the dark.” If the Board is “in the dark” it is because they turned off the lights! They have been told by the public for 2 ½ years that the public wants an investigation and answers. They have refused to get them. After all, the Board is withholding over 2,700 responsive documents from the period of late 2020 to July 2022 alone, before the video recordings were suddenly “found,” and before Misty Hampton’s emails were “found.” They and their attorneys alone have access to those secrets in those damning documents, --hardly being “kept in the dark,” except by their own wishes.
McCullough admits getting a call from Misty Hampton on the day of the first breach (January 7, 2021) to come by and see the “people from Atlanta, working on equipment.” [1:38;00] He notes that he could not attend. Interestingly, he states that at a previous meeting, Misty had informed him (and presumably the board) that the “people from Atlanta were coming in.” But we are now asked to believe that the board members, informed of “people from Atlanta” coming to inspect and work on the equipment, did not ask who was coming or what they were doing with the equipment and whether those people were authorized to access the highly restricted equipment. He states again that Secretary of State people came to the office. (This is certainly flase in the context of the breaches.)
Chairman Thomas then further goes into the “it’s not my job,” stance on behalf on the board wondering why it falls on the poor board to have an independent investigation conducted. [1:41:45] He bizarrely says that “anyone could go out and do that [conduct an investigation.]” Never mind the fact that this board controls thousands of breach-related documents that it claims are “attorney-client privileged” that only they and their attorneys can see. The Board knows that they are concealing those documents from the public and using massive amounts of taxpayer dollars to do so, and while disingenuously claiming that “anyone” can “investigate.” All press and public investigations have been met with this Board’s refusal to turn over basic documents, leaving the “investigations” without the facts. Only the board, which controls the documents, can authorize the public or independent legal counsel to review them.
We can speak for many public interest organizations and members of the press in saying that investigations will indeed be thoroughly and promptly conducted when the board stops fighting the public and concealing the records!
Thomas engaged in ridiculous positioning of “what could we possibly do differently to prevent such breaches,” [timestamp 1:42:15] as if properly functioning organizations do not have checks and balances, policies, procedures, security reporting requirements and disciplinary measures.
Tony Schley made the solid point that the past needs to be dealt with and that is what Coffee voters want. Ms. Paula Scott agreed. But Thomas, ready to kick the can way down the road, said that the facts will come out when Misty Hampton goes to court. (Which of course may never happen, or may be years down the road.)
Thomas inaccurately claimed that Cathy Latham merely got a “slap on the wrist” in the Fulton case. No, her case has not gone to trial yet, and she has made no plea deal.
Thomas said the topic will be taken up at the July meeting. We have little confidence that the Board has the commitment to pull back the curtain on the crimes that happened under the previous board’s watch, or take responsibility for their own lethargic information-obstructing response.
They have discussed having independent counsel conduct an investigation in meetings for over a year, and have always refused to act. Instead, they continue spending more public funds having their attorneys fight reporters and CGG to keep the damning records concealed.
What is at stake? The credibility and security of the November 2024 elections and the voters’ confidence in the integrity of the Board of Elections.
We urge you to contact the Board of Elections and the Board of Commissioners and demand accountability and that they stop the procrastination. They should conduct a special meeting before the July meeting and start confronting the issues head on, and stop deflecting.
We’ll deal with the Board’s careless approach to the May 2021 election certification and audit requirements and resulting errors in the next newsletter.
| 
