Board of Elections reject voter challenge

On Wednesday, December 23, the Houston County Board of Elections met at 801 Main Street in Perry, to discuss a challenge to a list of voters’ eligibility to vote per their change of address. Donna Sant, Chairwoman of the Houston County Republican Party, put forth the challenge. After some deliberation, this challenge was rejected.

“We are present here today to address a challenge to the Board of Elections, submitted by Donna Sant, on behalf of an organization called, ‘True the Vote.’ We have been challenged to examine the eligibility of 5,324 voters in Houston County and whether or not they are still legally in the county,” Chairman Katherine Shelton explained, as she brought the emergency meeting to order.

Before them, was a list of the more than 5,000 names. If this challenge had been accepted, they would have been expected to manually confirm the legal addresses of all 5,324 people on the list, and then have a hearing, all within five days.

This list, the board presumed, came from data gathered by the United States Post Office in 2019. The board, however, could not confirm this.

This challenge was put forth by Donna Sant, but more specifically, by True the Vote, a “Texas-based organization representing, at this point, the Georgia GOP.” According to their website, their mission is to “restore America’s confidence in our electoral process.”

After analyzing the provided document, the list of names, board member Sherman Falana said, “On that list, there is no date, there is no information to show exactly where that came from—the source of the information. There is no way to determine if these are address changes; if they were permanent address changes. The fact that there’s no date on it, we don’t know if it happened two years ago, two months ago, or 10 years ago, so the database means nothing to me. It’s not a reliable source.”

County Attorney Tom Hall said, “This request could have been generated long ago, instead of five days before you have to give the database to the Secretary of State. It is virtually impossible to do what they’re asking to be done.”

“In my mind, it’s pretty clear what our course of action should be,” Republican Appointee John Applegate said. “I move, given the circumstances, that we choose to reject this challenge.”

Barbara Waddle, Vice Chairman, seconded Applegate’s motion. The vote to reject this challenge was a unanimous one.

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