RITE Asks Georgia Election Board to Intervene; Subpoena The County to Reveal its Arrangement with CTCL and impose “appropriate sanctions”
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, February 16, 2023
WASHINGTON, DC – DeKalb County Board of Registration and Elections violated Georgia’s election law in January when they accepted a $2 million grant from U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence, says a complaint by Restoring Integrity and Trust in Elections filed today with the Georgia State Election Board and shared with Georgia’s Attorney General.
“It’s clear DeKalb County was willing to violate state law to secure millions from a progressive dark money organization,” said Derek Lyons, President and CEO of RITE. “Despite the county’s legal interpretation, DeKalb’s acceptance of the grant runs afoul of the spirit and letter of Georgia’s 2021 election reforms which banned county election offices from receiving private grant money. Fortunately, the State Election Board has considerable investigative powers to uncover all relevant facts and the legal authority to prevent the county from continuing action prohibited by law. We urge the Board to take action. Letting private financing into election administration will further erode voters’ confidence in the integrity of any future election.”
During a January meeting, DeKalb County approved the receipt of the $2 million in private partisan grant funding from a left-wing organization. The county then used a scheme to skirt state law. The county was the initial recipient of the grant before transferring the same amount of money to the DeKalb County Board of Registration and Elections, which is flatly prohibited from receiving these funds directly from non-governmental sources.
The Alliance, the source of the $2 million grant, is led by and receives funding from the Center for Tech and Civic Life (CTCL), which is known to be closely aligned with the Democrat Party. In its complaint, RITE asks the Election Board to investigate and determine the details of the Election Department’s relationship with the Alliance.
RITE’s complaint argues that “[s]uch evasion undermines democratic self-governance as reflected in Georgia’s duly enacted laws and erodes public trust and confidence in our elections. It is patently unlawful, and it cannot be allowed to succeed.” Review a copy of the complaint here.
RITE’s analysis and the legal determination that Georgia’s law has been broken builds on the recent work of the Honest Elections Project, Capital Research Center, The John Locke Foundation, and the Election Transparency Initiative.
RITE plans to vigilantly conduct oversight in other states that have received funding from the Alliance or CTCL.
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