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The following email was sent to all members of the Georgia General Assembly today.
October 7, 2026
Dear Members of the General Assembly:
Coalition for Good Governance urges you to call on the State Election Board to immediately rescind its September 30 letters requesting federal intervention in Georgia’s November election. Six days after those letters were sent, we are troubled by the absence of a clear, bipartisan public response to this consequential and likely disruptive action.
The Board should formally withdraw the requests, correct their factual errors and unsupported allegations, and notify every federal recipient that Georgia officials will address the state’s election-administration responsibilities through appropriate state processes.
Although the Board’s September 28 resolution broadly authorized federal outreach, Executive Director James Mills sent the resulting letters without the advance review expressly requested by members Salleigh Grubbs and Sara Ghazal. The letters’ inaccurate allegations and sweeping demands were therefore transmitted without that requested scrutiny. If a review had occurred as requested, that would have certainly shut down the effort to seek DOJ intervention on off-base allegations. They should not remain before federal officials as an unqualified expression of the Board’s considered judgment.
Some lawmakers and political leaders may believe that DOJ lacks the authority or practical ability to compel the requested changes before voting begins. That offers little reassurance. The Board has handed the Trump administration a blank check for involvement in Georgia’s elections. Trump’s DOJ will most assuredly cash those checks. The danger extends beyond whether DOJ can obtain the particular remedies the letters demand.
Our October 5 backgrounder explains the record and our concerns in significant detail. We urge you to read it alongside the correspondence and the Board’s own statements.
Three potential consequences deserve immediate attention:
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An unnecessary federal presence at polling places. The letters could be invoked to justify extensive federal monitoring that the Board has not demonstrated to be necessary. Depending on its implementation and public presentation, such a presence could intimidate voters, burden local officials, and turn voting locations into centers of political confrontation.
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Disputes over control of voting equipment. We are concerned that the requests could provide a pretext for threats or attempts to seize election equipment. Whether such action would be attempted is uncertain. President Trump certainly contemplated it in the past, specifically based on Georgia BMD issues. State lawmakers should ask the SEB to reduce that risk rather than leave a sweeping invitation intact.
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Additional grounds for post-election challenges. The letters place the Board’s official endorsement behind allegations concerning unresolved security and ballot-secrecy problems. The ballot secrecy problems indeed create a significant legal question. Candidates could invoke those allegations after the election to challenge the process or its results. Identifying problems without taking available protective action compounds the risk.
These concerns do not question the legitimate federal role in enforcing voting rights and other applicable federal laws. They concern this particular invitation: a sweeping, error-riddled request issued immediately before voting, false allegations, and citing issues far outside of federal jurisdiction, and without adequate review or a credible implementation plan.
Silence will not contain the consequences. We understand the possible reluctance to draw further national attention to the Board’s action. But leaving the requests uncorrected allows federal officials and others to continue invoking the Board’s name and authority, with the presumed support from Georgia’s political leaders. A formal withdrawal would establish a clear public record that the requested intervention no longer carries the Board’s or state officials’ endorsement, even though it would not eliminate any independent federal authority. We offer detailed suggested content for the letter we urge.
Members of the General Assembly know the costs of prolonged election controversy. After the 2020 election, lawmakers faced months of pressure, competing claims, and demands for extraordinary action. The resulting disputes have persisted for years. Georgia should take reasonable steps now to avoid another cycle of uncertainty and post-election confrontation that will play out in part in the legislature.
Protecting ballot secrecy remains an urgent, separate responsibility. With advance voting beginning October 13, CGG continues to believe that the risks of leaving the ballot-secrecy vulnerability unresolved outweigh the administrative inconvenience of adopting an effective protective procedure.
We have advocated shuffling ballots before scanning to break the connection between the order in which voters cast ballots and the records produced by the scanners. The low-tech ballot shuffling solution was endorsed by the RNC and GAGOP as well. It is clunky, low-technology approach, but we believe it merits immediate implementation with clear procedures and appropriate technical guidance. The Board and county officials independently should urgently address the practical requirements for protecting voters and the election certification through this method. We hope that lawmakers will encourage their home counties to take the legally required steps required to ensure that they are conducting a secret ballot election. Simply following the SOS guidance will not pass constitutional muster and will put the election at risk.
The Secretary of State’s announced measures do not resolve the constitutional problem or prevent a post-election challenge on the grounds of a non-secret ballot election. Restricting public disclosure of ballot records does not eliminate the ability of insiders or others with access to reconstruct how most voters voted. Nor does it remove the prospect of litigation alleging that voters were denied a secret ballot.
We ask each member of the General Assembly to urge the State Election Board to:
1. Immediately rescind the September 30 requests, notify all federal recipients, and supersede and cancel Executive Director's authority to communicate with federal agencies on this matter.
2. Correct the public record and disclose the drafting and approval history, including who supplied, reviewed, and approved the allegations in the improper September 30 letter.
3. Take prompt, lawful action to protect ballot secrecy, working with counties and qualified experts on procedures that can still be implemented before voting begins, or as soon thereafter as possible.
We particularly ask the House and Senate standing committees responsible for election legislation and oversight of State Election Board rulemaking to lead this effort. A clear, bipartisan request for withdrawal and practical corrective action would serve voters, election officials, candidates, and the General Assembly alike.
Georgia needs an orderly election and a defensible process. Please help bring this unnecessary invitation for federal intervention to an end while pressing the responsible state officials to address the problems within their authority.
We welcome your questions and would be pleased to provide the underlying documents or a briefing.
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