A spokesman for Kemp said his office was reviewing the letter and would not comment further. Board members and Coan could not immediately be reached for comment.
In his letter, Woolard called on Kemp to “investigate this unlawful meeting, declare all actions taken during this unlawful meeting invalid, remove the members and executive director who participated in this meeting from their positions, and replace them with SEB members and staff who will always abide by the law.”
At Friday’s meeting, the three commissioners said they needed to approve the rules by the end of the day to keep the proposed rules alive. One of the rules would expand access for partisan poll watchers during post-election vote counting. Another would require all county election boards to post daily online vote tallies on their county websites.
Committee chair John Favier, a Kemp appointee, and Sarah Tyndall Ghasal, a Democratic appointee, did not attend the meeting, which Ghasal said appeared to have been purposely scheduled for a time when they would not be available.
The attorney general’s office notified the commission on Thursday that the meeting may violate state law, which requires state commissions to publish notice of non-emergency meetings at least seven days in advance. Meetings that the commission deems an emergency or “extraordinary circumstances” can be held with less than 24 hours’ notice.
King said Friday that the meeting was lawful because it was announced more than 24 hours in advance. The meeting was announced on a paper posted on the door of the Capitol conference room but was not announced in advance on the State Board of Elections’ meetings website.
Staff writers Maya T. Prabhu and Caleb Groves contributed to this article.
