The Hall County Board of Elections and Registration turned aside four challenges to local voters at a special called meeting Wednesday, Dec. 23 at the Hall County Government Center.
Three of the challenges called into question the addresses of 8,502 voters, while a fourth challenge questioned the validity of the registrations of 40 voters who signed up to vote in Georgia's U.S. Senate runoffs after the Nov. 3 election.
Hall County Elections Director Lori Wurtz presented the challenges to the board, identifying the citizens who brought the challenges as Ricky McQueen, Theresa Webb of True the Vote and Chris Fetterman. Each questioned the validity of voter addresses on the different lists they submitted to the board. Wurtz said neither McQueen nor Fetterman cited the sources for the lists they submitted, but Webb noted that her list of 5,514 names came from National Change of Address (NCOA). McQueen and Webb submitted their challenges on Dec. 18, while Fetterman submitted his challenge on Dec. 20.
None of the challengers appeared at the called meeting.
Tom Smiley, Chairman of the Board of Elections, made a motion to deny the challenges to the voter address lists.
"I believe the spirit of the law, in my opinion, is that this kind of challenge should be done individually anyway and not with a list of 8,000 names from a list I have no idea where the sources came from nor can it be verified by me," Smiley said. He also noted the absence of the challengers at the meeting, and he said he was concerned about the possibility of a mass removal of thousands of names from a voter list so close to the Jan. 5, 2021 runoff elections.
"It is improper to purge a voter list 90 days before an election and I think taking 8,000 names off of a roster based on material from a list I have not seen would constitute, in my opinion, a purge," Smiley said.
Vice Chairman David Kennedy seconded the motion, but prior to the vote, board member Craig Lutz, one of two Republicans on the panel, told Smiley he would vote against his motion to deny the challenges. He defended the challengers failure to appear at the meeting, noting that two of them had jobs that prevented them from attending a 2 p.m. called meeting. Lutz also said Smiley was wrong when he said the challengers did not provide proper information on their sources.
"Actually they did, they cited where they got it from," Lutz said. "All three of the people said they got it basically from the same data base and if that's a data base you don't have access to, then I can't say that that's their problem...these three citizens of Hall County are exercising what is their only method to do what they think is right."
Lutz encouraged the other board members not to dismiss the challenges.
Ultimately, though, the board voted along party lines - with Smiley casting the tie-breaker - to deny the challenges to the voter addresses.
The other challenge, brought by Robert Michael Smith on Dec. 23 over the validity of 40 voters who registered to cast ballots in the Jan. 5 runoffs, was also denied. County Attorney Van Stephens told board members registration between Nov. 4 and Dec. 7 for the runoff was legal.
Following the meeting, Smiley said the bigger issue for the Hall County Elections Office - and others in the state - is management of the voting lists. He said he's been in touch with state lawmakers, asking them to consider changing state code to make it easier to maintain an accurate voter list.
"The legislature needs to revise those codes because there are some instances where unless a voter notifies us of a change, we aren't able to remove them - even if we have suspicions [of irregularities] - for two or three cycles," Smiley said. "So, our hands are somewhat tied by code."
He said if there's a change in a voter's status - be it change of address, temporary relocation or a death - someone needs to notify the local elections office. He said that often does not happen, however. Smiley also said he'd like for the there to be a way locally to verify a voter has not cast a ballot in Georgia and another state.
"Obviously a voter signs their affidavit saying they have not voted [elsewhere], but we can't verify that...so there are some things that need to be done to tighten up our voter processes that would keep it fair and equitable for everybody," Smiley said. "That's the goal - a good, fair equitable vote for everybody."
