After the huge attendance of election integrity advocates at the state capitol for the last several State Board of Elections meetings, Governor Kemp’s appointed Chairman for the Board, John Fervier announced that the next meeting(s) would only be virtual online.
The next Board Meeting is scheduled for August 19th. “I wonder if the first item of business,” said GRA Chairman Alex Johnson, “should be to vote to have all in-person meetings in the future unless there’s an emergency agreed to by at least three members?”
By making the SEB meetings virtual they are preventing election integrity activists from providing in-person, demonstrable proof of concerned voters, holding signs and getting media attention for election reform, thus making them easier to ignore. No doubt the Chairman probably hopes to squelch the growing momentum within the movement and prevent the morale boost that results from seeing hundreds of fellow activists joining forces from around the state. But election integrity activists have decided to double down.
He also suggested the board members who are not afraid of concerned citizens perhaps book a room at the Capitol where they can log in to the virtual call and allow the public to join. This would help the voters participate who are technologically challenged. Please suggest this option in your email to the SEB members. Frazier also suggested everyone contact Governor Kemp as well.
This news broke as Attorney General Chris Carr announced that he would follow the State Board’s recent vote calling for him to investigate evidence of problems with the Fulton County elections from 2020. Carr said in a statement: “The State of Georgia will investigate specific claims of voter fraud. Based on the facts & the evidence, we stand ready to prosecute any voter fraud found in the State of Georgia.”
But Kandiss Taylor, GRA Member and First District GOP Chairwoman, remains skeptical. She discovered donor records showing the Republican Attorneys General Association gave Governor Kemp over $1.8 Million in four donations. She believes this is why there has been no investigation of voter fraud.
We’d like to invite you to join us on Thursday evening, August 22nd, for a special pre-release showing of the final cut of the Reagan Movie! About twelve years ago, when I was paying my way through law school while working as a film editor in San Antonio, I had the pleasure of meeting the filmmakers behind this movie when it was in the early stages of pre-production. I can’t tell you how excited I am that they finally got it made after all these years!
My wife and I had the delight of seeing an early cut of the film back in May, and it brought tears to our eyes. While there are many excellent documentaries about the life of our 40th President, we have never seen a dramatic film made about him before that was not out to make him look like a bafoon or heartless. What people will see in this film is a moving depiction of Reagan’s heroic presidency in spite of his flaws. It pays honor to a man who helped to tun the tide of American history. The Republican Party, and the world, has not been the same since Ronald Reagan.
So what a great way for us to get in the mood right before campaigning gets into high gear for the November General Election than to go and see this movie together! Supporting the movie will also support the brave independent filmmakers who have labored for so long to bring this to the screen.
Come join us on Thursday evening, August 22nd, at 6:00pm for this special pre-release showing of the FINAL CUT of the new Reagan Movie — hosted by the Cobb County Republican Assembly chapter! The showing will be at the NCG Acworth Movie Theater. Those who register will receive a drink and popcorn along with their movie ticket!
Seating is limited! There is an early bird $5 discount if you register before August 20th.
Here is a summary of the event:
Reagan Movie Night Location: NCG Acworth Movie Theater 4421 Cinema Dr, Acworth, GA 30101 Time: 6:00pm EST Cost: $35 for movie, popcorn, & drink
Funds raised go to the support of local Republican candidates in the general election.
Atlanta, GA — An estimated over 300 election integrity activists from every corner of the state showed up at the State Board of Elections Meeting and a Press Conference (organized by Georgians for Truth) Tuesday at the State Capitol, filling up three rooms! Many of us from the GRA were pleased to be among them. With so many items on the agenda, the meeting progressed into a second day.
Chairman JohnFervier (appointed by Governor Brian Kemp) displayed what appeared to be hostility to the election integrity activists by throwing a curve ball in changing the process for how people could sit in the main room. In the past, access to the main room has been based upon first-come-first-served, but the Chairman imposed a new system whereby attendees had to receive tickets to get a seat, and priority was given to members of the press and state legislature in order to have access to the main room. Several who arrived early to get a seat were told they had to move to an overflow room because they did not have a ticket.
Jason Frazier
The GRA’s Election Integrity Action Group Chairman Jason Frazier observed about the meeting: “I would be surprised if Fervier makes it to the end of his term. Pressure is building. Meetings went from quarterly to 3-4 days/month. He is no longer the alpha in the room. Hundreds of people are showing up, thousands more watching. He has lost control of the meeting. People that know him and his family say that he wasn’t like this, etc.” He described Fervier’s actions as “Waffle House,” a play on Fervier’s career as an Executive at the company.
GRA-member & 1st District Chairwoman Kandiss Taylor summarized the situation on the State Elections Board well when she wrote on X that it “has [three] ethical, moral, election responsible members. They have a liberal [D]emocrat as well as a Kemp appointed Chairman that both are fighting the Georgians who just want truth and accountability.”
So far both Republican Party appointed Dr. Janice Johnston and GA State House appointed Janelle King have been the most reliable leaders of election integrity reforms on the SEB, although even they mused aloud that some of the rule proposals presented this week crossed the line, in their minds, from rule-making into possible legislating, in particular one that would have substituted Dominion computer voting for paper ballots under particular circumstances. State Senate appointed member Rick Jeffres is increasingly voting with Johnston and King in favor of rule reforms. Democrat appointed member Sara Tindell Ghazal and Kemp appointee Chairman Fervier are more often finding themselves voting together in the minority.
GRA-member and Cobb GOP Chairwoman Salleigh Grubbs pointed out the problem of the SEB not having their own legal counsel, but being strapped to the counsel of the Secretary of State. “How many times are y’all going to allow a data breach form the Secretary of State’s office before you do something about it?” she asked.
GRA-member Matt Rowenczak testifies at the SEBMeeting Tuesday.
Eyebrows were raised when a lawyer from Washington, D.C. was brought in Tuesday to testify against the need for certain election integrity reforms. Dr. Johnston asked who invited him to speak for 30 minutes in front of the Board, and Chairman Fervier replied somewhat testily that that was his decision.
The Georgia SEB received national attention this week for voting to pass a rule that would require “a reasonable inquiry” before certifying an election where there were signs of possible fraud or miscalculation. Detractors of the rule argued that the rule provision was ambiguous and could keep election results tied up in court for months.
Former President Donald Trump praised the development. “I won Alabama by a record,” he said of the 2020 election. “I won South Carolina by a record. You don’t win Alabama and South Carolina by records and lose Georgia. It doesn’t happen. All we want is honest elections. If we have honest elections in Georgia, if we have honest elections in Pennsylvania, we’re gonna win ’em by a lot.”
Update: In a 3-2 vote Wednesday, election board members Rick Jeffares, Janice Johnston and Janelle King voted to report findings from the Fulton County investigation of double balloting, missing ballot images and a host of other violations tied to the controversial 2020 presidential election to the Attorney General. The vote Wednesday referred the Fulton case to Attorney General Chris Carr‘s office for investigation into 17,852 reported missing ballot images, the double-counting of more than 3,000 ballot vote images, and other election-related violations.
Remember that Trump only allegedly lost Georgia in the presidential race of 2020 by about 12,000 votes. If there were double votes on some of those, that would reduce the number to about 9,000 votes. If there are over 17,000 ballot images missing that were in favor of Trump in that election, then he would have rightfully won that presidential election — contrary to what has been reported.
Above are images of the three full rooms with attendees at the State Board of Elections Meeting Tuesday.
Atlanta, GA — Josh McKoon has officially used the “R” word in reference to former Lt. Governor Geoff Duncan after Duncan endorsed Democrat presidential candidate Kamala Harris over Republican nominee Donald Trump. On social media McKoon even threatened to have the GA GOP Executive Committee vote to blockDuncanfromever beingable to qualify to run again as a Republican on the GOP primary ballot in Georgia.
GA GOP Chairman Josh McKoon
We commend Chairman McKoon for taking this strong stand! Cheers could be heard all the way from Catoosa County. By referencing the GOP Executive Committee’s accountability power, and the type of sanction we advocated for in our proposed Accountability Rule, McKoon is putting politicians on notice that the GA GOP will draw a line in the sand if they go too far. Duncan’s behavior definitely demonstrates a lack of loyalty to the principles and interests of the Republican Party.
A radical leftist like Democrat Kamala Harris is the antithesis of the GAGOP platform.
Last Saturday, the GA GOP Executive Committee reportedly voted to draft a document to be taken up at a future meeting on this very subject. We urge the committee to hold a roll call vote on this issue so that all Republican grassroots activists back home know exactly how their elected representatives on the GA GOP Executive Committee voted on this important subject. It may serve as a litmus test during convention season next year of who should be elected again and who should not.
Mike Crane Elected 1st Vice Chairman of the GA GOP
Also this Saturday, the GA GOP Executive Committee voted to elect GRA-member Mike Crane as the new 1st Vice Chairman on the first ballot of three candidates, filling a vacancy that has lasted for nearly three months. We commend this election! Mike was the most conservative Republican State Senator in the legislature during his tenure, and he has since served as the 3rd District GA GOP Chairman until resigning this year to run for Congress.
Milwaukee, Wisconsin — President Donald J. Trump announced his pick for running mate: JD Vance from Ohio!
Donald Trump and J.D. Vance
We are particularly excited about this decision because at our NFRA Convention last year in Orlando, Florida, the NFRA delegates endorsed seven potential candidates for Vice President — and only J.D. Vance remained on the short-list.
We appreciate President Trump hearing our counsel and advice to have a better conservative like Vance on his team, rather than some of the other candidates who were on the short list. The Freedom Index, a scorecard provided by the John Birch Society, which upholds a high standard on a variety of issues, gives Vance an 86% voting record as a U.S. Senator.
Both former President Donald Trump and Senator Vance were both overwhelmingly nominated as the Republican nominees for President and Vice President in 2024 at the convention.
Atlanta, GA — GRA members from across the state and other election integrity proponents gathered at the State Capitol Tuesday morning for the State Board of Elections Meeting where cases, public comments, and proposed rule changes were examined. It was also the first meeting where Janelle King, newly appointed from the Georgia House of Representatives, joined the Board, which seems to have had a positive impact. King recently replaced registered lobbyist Ed Lindsey.
An estimated 255 patriots attended, requiring the Board to open two overflow rooms.
Dr. Janice Johnston came into the meeting swinging from the very beginning, making a motion to revisit the Rossi case. The Chair held that motion out of order, and Dr. Johnston immediately appealed the decision of the Chair. That led to the Board going into executive session to deliberate. When the Board came back into the public forum, Rick Jeffares joined with the Democrat-appointed member of the state Board and the Governor’s appointed member Chairman John Fervier to block the effort. Off to that rocky start, things began to get better as the day progressed.
Garland Favarito was given 15 minutes to expound on concerns related to the Rossi case, such as, thousands of missing ballot images, ballots that appear to have been counted twice, and Fulton County’s unwillingness to comply with Open Records Requests to examine the actual ballots. He graciously and succinctly laid out a persuasive case for the Board and then introduced other elections experts who would also testify to the problems. According to expert computer technician Patrick Parikh, there is a loss of “SHA files” related to the meta-data in the Dominion voting machines that make them dubious and vulnerable to hacking.
Garland Favorito testifies
The public comments were overwhelmingly favorable to election integrity. Over 50 people had signed up for public comment at two minutes each. Sam Carnline, Jason Frazier, and Matt Rowenczak were among them. GRA member Holly Kessler from Savannah reported, “There is a pattern of manipulation. … I have the Ware County duplicates. … We are going into the most critical times of elections in our lives. It’s up to the [Board of Elections] to figure this out. We do support you, but we are asking you to step up and do the right thing!”
GRA member Tim Talbot from Gainesville said, “You need to act!”
Janelle King asked one of the commenters opposing election integrity reform whether saying an election was “certified” means that an election “happened” or if it means the election was “correct.”
Cobb RA member Salleigh Grubbs (the Chairwoman of the Cobb GOP) won a solid victory on a rule proposal she presented before the Board in the afternoon. Salleigh’s proposal would have clarified that before local county Boards of Elections certify an election, they must first examine irregularities or inconsistencies to make sure the election was conducted accurately. So, for example, if the number of ballots cast is different from the total number of votes, this would be investigated and corrected before finalizing the report of the election results in a precinct or county.
Salleigh Grubbs presents her proposal in the afternoon session.
Chairman Fervier objected to Salleigh’s proposal, saying that it conflicted with a proposed rule change he had on the agenda. Salleigh replied to him with a polite smile, “I like my rule better than yours.”
Dr. Johnston expressed concern that the “guidelines” in Fervier’s proposal would create more restrictions on accountability. “It’s already too complicated,” added Janelle King.
After much discussion, when the Board voted on Salleigh’s proposal, Rick Jeffares (nominated by Lt. Governor Burt Jones) was the third vote in favor of Salleigh’s proposal. King and Johnston also voted in the affirmative.
The packed room exploded in applause with that win.
Happy Independence Day from the Georgia Republican Assembly!
It’s time to break out the fireworks and enjoy some tasty barbecue! Yes, it is good for our country to come together and celebrate days of remembrance.
But through all the fun, I hope that we make sure our children and grandchildren really know and understand why we are having all of these festivities. Because the battle-cry against tyranny that our founding fathers sounded in their generation is still the cry that we must sound today.
Our founders faced tyranny from the British King and Parliament. Today we face tyranny from global agencies, the White House, Congress, numerous federal agencies, sometimes the Gold Dome, and even our local county commission and board of election buildings!
Our founders gave their “lives, their fortunes, and their sacred honor,” and we are standing on their shoulders. We may not yet be called upon to risk our lives or our fortunes, but surely we can give something to the cause of freedom. It may be an evening at a county commission or board of elections meeting, or a Saturday door-knocking for a strong candidate.
Even more significantly, it may mean taking the time to personally raise our children (and not just let the government schools or the T.V. do it for us!). It may mean regularly going to church, and giving charitably to replace government welfare. It may mean working a job faithfully and living within our means so that we and our families don’t become dependent slaves of the state.
Some of these things may not sound all that political, but they are all a part of building a culture that makes America great again! That culture is what the French author Alex de Tocqueville observed about Americans in 1835 when he wrote: “America is great because she is good.”
An America that has that kind of culture can withstand any attempted tyrannies from the state. A hero in office like Donald Trump needs a people with that kind of culture to back him up and spur him on to success.
So let’s work to rebuild the best aspects of the American culture that first made it “great.” Let’s return to those founding presuppositions of the founding generation — not all of which they personally lived up to, but which they fearlessly proclaimed as the nation’s aspiration!
Let’s get back to acknowledging, first, as our founders did in the Declaration of Independence, that we are “created” by God with a special human purpose. We did not randomly happen to rise out of the ooze without meaning. We are not the product of chance. Moreover, there is a Divine Authority over all human authorities that holds them in check.
That Creator “endowed us with certain unalienable rights.” These rights mean that God has placed jurisdictional limitations upon civil government. He did not give them a blank check. The state may not morally murder (or help murderers get away with it), and it may not steal — just to touch on a few of the tyrannies our modern civil government regularly practices today.
We must expect better from our elected officials.
We must be willing to work as hard as our founders.
We must, as our founders, trust in Divine Providence.
In 1775 when General George Washington was struggling to keep his army together in the war against Britain, the greatest empire on earth, he wrote:
“If I shall be able to rise superior to these and many other difficulties which might be enumerated, I shall most religiously believe that the finger of Providence is in it …”.
George Washington
We need to get down our knees and pray to God for help in our own battle against tyranny today. We need to acknowledge our sins, both personal and national, and turn from them. We need to ask God to forgive us and help us to overcome even as He helped the founding generation overcome in 1776.
We in the GRA are ready to lock arms with you in this endeavor. Reach out to us if we can help you in this on-going fight against tyranny!
Spence Rogers reported on Twitter / X that “The RNC is making the RNC committee meetings secret so that they can update the RNC Platform with gay marriage, more immigration, and abortion.” RNC committee meetings are usually broadcast on C-SPAN.
Brant Frost V
In response, GRA 1st Vice President Brant Frost V stated: “If true, as a member of the Convention Rules Committee, I will fight against any attempt to make convention committee meetings secret. Our grassroots have a right to know what we are doing. RNC Rules should REQUIRE open convention committee meetings.”
GRA Chairman Alex Johnson, who is also serving as a national delegate, agreed, saying: “The people who elected people to committees deserve to know what’s going on in the committees and how they are acting / voting (for accountability and future trust) …”.
GA GOP Chairman Josh McKoon and Suzi Voyles (both GRA members) are serving on the Platform Committee at the RNC. Urge them to oppose these kinds of back-door changes to the Republican Party Platform.
This article was written as a collaboration of GRA members involved with our newsletter team without contribution from any attorneys involved in the litigation.
The four candidates for county commission who the Catoosa GOP refused to qualify had done such things as repeatedly vote to raise taxes, take away the rights of citizens to raise chickens, and engaged in bullying of citizens protesting at commission meetings. One of them, Vanita Hullander, even publicly endorsed a local Democrat for office. Hullander was defeated last week in the Republican Primary runoff.
Click to see the video about the candidate qualifying case in Catoosa.
When “Republican Coalition, Inc.” organizations started popping up in different communities last year, starting in Cherokee County, many grassroots activists expressed alarm about why they felt the need to start such organizations. The organizations appeared to emerge first in communities where the grassroots had taken over leadership of local GOP organizations, wresting control away from the Establishment, oriented to the power at the Gold Dome. They appeared to be part of an effort to replace these grassroots-run organizations and delegitimize them. Some new activists have joined the “Coalition” mistakenly assuming they were the official GOP organization.
In particular, concern was expressed about how the “Coalition” accepted new members and whether those members had any vote controlling the activities of the organization. Unlike the official GOP organizations and the GRA, it appears the Coalitions are run top-down by the owners of the corporations. According to one Coalition member, Brent Herrin (who is the registered agent of the incorporated “Coalitions”) did not present the idea of filing an amicus in this case to them for discussion or a vote before it was filed — unilaterally. The Coalitions, thus, appear to operate without accountability.
Click to see the video presentation “A Tale of Two GOPs.”
This latest action by Herrin and company joining the lawsuit contradicts his repeated statements of reassurance that he and the Coalition have not been seeking to undermine the grassroots within the Republican Party of Georgia.
In addition to leading the “Republican Coalition, Inc.” and its various local chapters (nicknamed the “Whiners and Losers Club” by the North Metro RA chapter), Brent Herrin was also elected last year to the GA GOP State Committee on behalf of the 11th District GA GOP, which encompasses part of Cobb County, most of Cherokee County, and all of Bartow, Pickens, and Gordon counties. As a result of this betrayal and violation of his promises, we are calling on the grassroots in the 11th Congressional District GA GOP organization to vote to remove Mr. Herrin from any position of leadership within the GA GOP. He clearly cannot be trusted.
Herrin and company want to ensure that the Republican Party stands for nothing and is a meaningless label that anyone can purchase, regardless of their belief system.
The word “amicus” is the Latin word for “friend” and is the same root from which Spanish gets the word “amigo.” An amicus brief, thus, is an argument written by someone who is not a party to the case, but who wants to provide their input to the court and share outside information. The RINOs in Catoosa County and the Cherokee-based Republican Coalition, Inc. are certainly amigos, no doubt about it.
In the brief, Herrin argues that a candidate’s payment of the fee, and satisfying the procedural rules of the party are the only legal requirements for a candidate to appear on the ballot of their choice, and that Catoosa GOP’s process wasn’t actually procedural.
But what does the word “qualify” even mean if no one can be denied? Why call it a “qualifying” process if the only requirement for getting a place on the Republican ballot is that you have paid the money? Why not call it a “payment process” instead?
The word “qualify” implies that some who apply may not be approved, and others will. If it was an automatic matter of administration, a more apt term would be utilized. The Catoosa Republican Party is merely trying to enforce a minimum standard of adherence to basic GOP policy positions, and Herrin apparently thinks that is wrong. If Herrin is a true Republican, who shares a Republican belief system, why would he oppose efforts to ensure only true Republicans are labeled Republicans? If he truly believes the Democrat program is harmful, why wouldn’t he be concerned about undercover Democrats running as Republicans in rural GA?
If candidates do not have to meet minimum standards, then the word “Republican” has become a completely meaningless term. Herrin may argue that “the Republican voters” should be able to decide who can qualify in the Primary elections, but Georgia has an open primary system which allows even Democrat voters to cast a vote in the Republican Primary, determining our nominees. On the other hand, “the Republican voters” do get to elect the leaders of their local GOP organizations, as they have done in places like Catoosa and Cherokee counties.
Crawford “Republican” Commissioners Appoint Democrat to Elections Board
Crawford County, Georgia, west of Macon
Crawford County GOP Chairwoman Janet Carter reported that three of the Republican Commissioners in her county just voted to put a Democrat (who was actively trying to start a Democrat Party organization in Crawford) on the county’s Board of Elections. They did so by replacing a Republican incumbent who was seeking re-appointment. Now the Crawford County Board of Elections consists of two Democrats and one Republican in a ruby-red Republican county! This is yet another example in Georgia of where the local county GOP would have good reason to deny these county commissioners from running for re-election in the Republican Primary — because they did not prioritize the interests of their own party ahead of the interests of the opposing party.
The fact that state law allows political parties to conduct qualifying, and that the signature of the elected GOP officers is required to make the qualification official, indicates that GOP leaders are allowed to exercise some judgment about who does and who does not qualify.
Even so, the four denied Catoosa Commission candidates took legal action attempting to force themselves on the Republican ballot, contrary to the Catoosa GOP’s procedural rules. That has led to two cases that are pending on appeal in both state and federal court. We expect that the court will eventually overturn a local judge’s actions to force the candidates on the ballot, contrary to the 1st Amendment.
Former State Sen. Mike Crane congratulates Brian Jack for winning the nomination for Congressional District 3.
There were lots of potential good news from last night’s Republican Primary runoff! In particular, Establishment-candidate Sen. Mike Dugan (who had a 35% “F” legislative vote score in 2023) was defeated by Brian Jack in the 3rd Congressional District race.
After the Republican Primary in May, Jack was endorsed by Mike Crane and Phillip Singleton, both GRA members who have been previously endorsed by the GRA as legislators for their exceptional performance. Jack has also worked previously on staff for former President Donald Trump.
Jack is expected to be a more conservative Congressman than the retiring incumbent from the district, Drew Ferguson.
In other news, GRA member Gregory Howard from Gwinnett won his runoff for the nomination in the 7th District State Senate race. He’ll now face the Democrat incumbent State Senator in a district that leans Democrat.
In Pike County, former GRA-endorsed State Rep. Ken Pullin (with an 84%-88% “A” legislative score) won his runoff for county commission, defeating the incumbent:
This win for Pullin was seen as vindication after he was pressured to abandon his State House seat when the late former Speaker David Ralston worked to gerrymander his old House district during redistricting to ensure he would not be re-elected, just as he had done to Phillip Singleton in his former State House seat.
Vanita Hullander
Also it was noteworthy that two of the incumbent Catoosa County Commission candidates who the Catoosa GOP did not qualify as Republicans in the primary lost their Republican primary runoff elections last night. Both incumbent County Commission Chairman Larry Black and incumbent County Commissioner for District 3 Vanita Hullander went down to defeat in their races. Hullander was the commissioner who endorsed a Democrat in a local race and made the absurd retort to an angry local citizen at a commission meeting, when he was complaining about how local tax dollars were being spent by the commission, that “you act like we’re spending your money personal!” The citizen replied to her, “That is our money!”
Hullander and Black took legal action in March to get a local judge to force them on the ballot. That has led to two cases on appeal in both state and federal court where we trust this violation of the 1st Amendment’s “freedom of association” clause will eventually be overturned.
