HEP Urges the Georgia Attorney General, Secretary of State, and Election Board to Investigate DeKalb County for $2 Million Election Funding Scheme

WASHINGTON, D.C. – February 22, 2023 – Honest Elections Project (HEP) executive director Jason Snead has requested Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, and the State Election Board open an investigation into the DeKalb County Board of Registration and Elections and other appropriate respondents for violating Georgia’s ban on outside funding for election administration.

Last month, Honest Elections Project and the John Locke Foundation published a report detailing an $80 million left-wing dark money operation conducted by the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence, a coalition of left-wing nonprofits and companies led by the Center for Tech and Civic Life, targeting local election offices to push left-wing voting policies.

On March 24, 2021, Governor Brian Kemp signed the Election Integrity Act of 2021 into law, which in part, prohibits the private funding of election administration in the state of Georgia. But on February 2, 2023, DeKalb County officials acknowledged the receipt of $2 million in funding to support their elections department – a clear violation of Georgia law and apparent attempt to evade the ban on private funding.

Honest Elections Project executive director Jason Snead released the following statement:

“Allowing outside special interests to pump millions of dollars of private funding into election offices erodes the public’s trust in election administration, which is why Georgia and two-dozen other states have restricted private election funding over the last two years. DeKalb County and the U.S. Alliance for Election Excellence’s brazen defiance of Georgia election law is a slap in the face to voters and their legislators. The Honest Elections Project urges Attorney General Carr, Secretary of State Raffensperger, and the State Election Board open an investigation and take the proper steps to address this clear attempt by DeKalb County to evade Georgia law.”

Copies of the full letters sent to the Georgia officials can be found here, here, and here. The full report on the Center for Tech and Civic Life can be found here.