Georgia's State Election Board is in open conflict over a set of letters its executive director sent to federal law enforcement, with Chairman John Fervier saying he would not have authorized them had he seen them beforehand and fellow board member Janelle King insisting they never strayed from what the board approved. The dispute lands just days before early in-person voting opens statewide on October 13, leaving county election workers to navigate the fallout with little time to spare.
Fervier told Atlanta News First that the board never reviewed or authorized the letters before Executive Director James Mills sent them, and he said he does not believe Mills even wrote them, though their authorship remains unclear to him. Separately, Fervier told Votebeat that Mills drafted and sent the letters on his own initiative, without board authorization or advance review — the latest flashpoint in a power struggle between the two men that has simmered since Mills was appointed in 2025, according to the outlet.
What the Board Actually Voted On
The board voted 3-2 on September 28 to direct Mills to seek federal assistance with outdated voting systems and ballot secrecy, a resolution introduced by Republican appointee Carolyn Roddy that cited public complaints about voting system vulnerabilities, per Democracy Docket. Fervier voted against it, citing limited-government objections to federal involvement in state elections, the same outlet reported. Mills was also urged to ask the Secretary of State to update voting machines, per the Atlanta News First account.
But Fervier says what Mills actually sent went well beyond that mandate. The letters referenced investigating QR codes, the Secretary of State, and potential criminal activity — issues Fervier said were not covered in the board's resolution. He sent them to the U.S. Attorney General, the Justice Department, and the Department of Homeland Security before the board's October 1 meeting, according to Atlanta News First.
A Specific Ask: Ban QR Codes, Set a Six-Month Clock
The most detailed of those letters, dated September 30 and addressed to Assistant Attorney General Harmeet Dhillon, formally asked federal officials to ban QR-code vote tabulation and impose a binding six-month deadline for Georgia to overhaul its voting system, according to the Georgia Record. The letter cited claims about noncompliant electronic tabulation, security flaws, and voter registration data sharing with third-party organizations, the outlet reported. Atlanta News First similarly reported the letters asked federal officials to prohibit noncompliant electronic tabulation and set a binding six-month deadline for Georgia to adopt a system complying with the Help America Vote Act and eliminating QR codes.
King, who voted for the original resolution, sees it differently. She told Atlanta News First that Mills simply followed the board's instructions and that the letters did not go beyond the resolution. She said board members received the letter within the same hour it was sent and that no one responded with objections — a silence she interpreted as acceptance. King also said she did not expect QR codes to actually be removed as a result.
The Unfunded Law Behind the Fight
The underlying QR-code dispute traces back to Georgia's Senate Bill 189, enacted in 2024, which required official vote counts to rely on human-readable text rather than machine-printed QR codes — a mandate the General Assembly left unfunded, according to 11Alive. Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has repeatedly noted that replacing QR-code ballot-marking devices statewide would require roughly $66 million in funds the legislature hasn't appropriated, per the same report. Georgia bought its current Dominion Voting Systems technology in July 2019 under a $107 million contract covering more than 30,000 touchscreen ballot-marking devices and 3,500 optical scanners, according to StateScoop.```json`;Correction: ```
Lawmakers have already tried to buy more time. Governor Brian Kemp called a special legislative session in June 2026 to address election law adjustments. Separately, a proposal to push the QR-code phaseout deadline to 2028 was unveiled in March and passed the House on the final day of the 2026 regular legislative session, with legislators citing logistical and financial obstacles to replacing machines before statewide elections; it did not come up for a Senate vote that year, 11Alive reported. The machines Georgia currently uses have been in service since 2019 or 2020, per Atlanta News First.
Divided Over Whether Washington Belongs in Georgia's Elections
The clash over the letters has turned into a broader argument about federal authority. Fervier said the federal government should not interfere in Georgia elections, emphasizing that the state is responsible for administering its own voting process. King countered that federal funding gives the federal government a legitimate role in Georgia's elections, and she said she supports federal officials holding the state accountable to federal guidelines — along with using whatever available avenues exist to protect voting rights and ensure transparent elections.
Fervier also questioned the timing, noting the letters surfaced about a week before voting begins, and warned the episode could sow confusion among voters. He said Georgians' votes are secure and will be counted, and urged voters to remain confident in the election process and to vote. Board members have since discussed what to do next, and some have called for the letters to be rescinded — though doing so would require a formal board meeting, according to Atlanta News First, which also reported contacting Mills and the Justice Department for comment.
A Board Already Under Strain
This isn't the board's first clash over transparency. In November 2025, the board voted to approve a settlement in a public records lawsuit brought by watchdog group American Oversight, which had alleged that members obstructed records requests by conducting official business on private email accounts, according to the Atlanta Journal-Constitution. The board has produced frequent 3-2 splits since 2024 appointments reshaped its composition, the AJC reported. On the September 28 resolution, Salleigh Grubbs was among the three supporters, while Fervier and Democratic member Sara Tindall Ghazal opposed it.
The fight also echoes years of litigation over Georgia's voting machines. A federal judge dismissed Curling v. Raffensperger, a long-running 2017 lawsuit challenging the state's Dominion machines, in April 2025, finding the plaintiffs lacked standing while still noting ongoing system security concerns, per 11Alive. Georgia election law requires three weeks of early in-person voting across all 159 counties before Election Day, a deadline now bearing down on local administrators as the board sorts out its next move.
