Johns Creek Election May Be Illegitimate, Voting Group Alleges

JOHNS CREEK, GA — The results of a special Johns Creek City Council election held April 18 may not be legitimate, according to a report by the nonprofit group VoterGA. The report focuses its critique on alleged security flaws in voting machines and says the election was improperly scheduled.

Three separate elections were held that night: the Johns Creek City Council election, the Roswell City Council run-off and the Sixth District Congressional race.

Official results of the Johns Creek City Council show Chris Coughlin winning the race with 64 percent, or 10,047 votes, compared to fellow challenger John Flores's 36 percent, or 5,702 votes.

The Roswell City Council run-off resulted in Lori Henry winning over Marie Willsey with 58 percent of the vote.

The Sixth District Congressional election’s results showed Democrat Jon Ossoff with 48.12 percent of the vote and top Republican candidate Karen Handel with 19.77 percent. No candidates reached 50 percent, so the run-off was triggered, which will be held June 20.

But there were problems in the Johns Creek election, according to VoterGA.

Combining the Elections

Johns Creek Mayor Mike Bodker submitted a resolution on February 27 calling for a special election to fill the Post Four position left open by Councilman Bob Gray, who was then seeking the Sixth District Congressional seat. The resolution moved to combine the election dates for Post Four and the Sixth District primary elections, the report says.

“I know they were probably trying to save money. It’s very expensive to run the polling place,” said Barbara Hartman, a polling place worker in the Roswell precinct.

By combining the elections, the City of Johns Creek saved about $170,000, according to Jeff Breslau, communications director for the city. Also, he said, the combination of the elections was expected to yield a bigger turnout.

The City Council passed the resolution combining elections. However, the VoterGA report said, there was a problem. "The resolution did not comply with federal or state law."

"I can’t tell you for sure that the election was legitimate," Garland Favorito, a co-founder of VoterGA, said in an interview with Patch. “Two main things we focus on are verifiable voting and fair and equal ballot access for all candidates.”

Previously, Georgia law mandated that special elections for counties and municipalities can be held only in March, June, September or November. But House Bill 42, signed into law by Gov. Nathan Deal on Feb. 23, changed that. It allows local special elections to be combined with federal special elections, "provided all other provisions of law regarding such elections are met," according to the report.

MOVE Act Violation Avoided

VoterGA wrote a letter to the mayor and council explaining why the group believes the resolution was illegal. Federal election law requires military ballots to be finalized and transmitted 45 days ahead of an election to ensure that service members deployed or stationed overseas have a chance to vote.

Ballots for the Sixth District election had gone out in plenty of time, but ballots for the Post Four election were not released in time, the voting group argued.

When the local election was combined with the federal election, and not all names on the ballot had met that 45-day mark, it was illegal, they contend.

To get around this, Kennesaw State University created separate ballots for the elections, which were held at the same place and at the same time.

Voters had to complete the entire process of voting -- registering, waiting in line and voting -- twice. That way, the MOVE Act was not technically violated.

The Department of Justice has filed lawsuits against Wisconsin, Guam, New York, New Mexico and Illinois for violating the MOVE Act, the federal election law.

VoterGA proposed an adjustment to Georgia law, which would require a 60-day advance for candidate qualification. This would further ensure that all elections in the state are in compliance with the MOVE Act and that this problem won’t happen again.

Voting Machine Deficiencies

The combination of these separate elections caused some problems. By human error, a memory card with results from the Roswell run-off was inserted into the Sixth District election system, causing a computer error.