Georgia Board of Elections Director Sends Letters to Trump Administration Demanding Changes to Voting Machines

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Last week, the Georgia state election board sent letters to the U.S. Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security asking the Trump administration to order major changes to the state’s voting equipment just weeks before the midterm elections.

But the board president says his members did not authorize the letters, did not review them in advance and did not know they were being sent.

While the letters were widely understood to be an outgrowth of a Sept. 28 resolution authorizing Executive Director James Mills to seek federal help in addressing concerns about Georgia’s election system, Chairman John Fervier told Votebeat that Mills wrote and sent the letters himself and that they went far beyond what the board had approved in a 3-2 vote two days earlier.

“We have no control over our general manager, and he does whatever he wants,” Fervier said.

When asked if this was an ongoing problem, Fervier replied: “You have no idea. »

Mills did not respond to a Saturday email and Sunday voicemail seeking comment.

The episode marks the latest escalation in a long-running power struggle over the State Board of Elections. Since Mills was hired in 2025, he and Fervier have repeatedly clashed over how much authority the CEO can exercise without the president’s input.

Fervier’s account was confirmed by Salleigh Grubbs, vice chair of the Georgia Republican Party and one of three members who voted for the resolution, who generally aligned with the board’s conservative majority.

Grubbs told Votebeat that a few hours after the Sept. 28 meeting, she emailed Mills asking him to send the proposed letter to board members before it was released. Democratic Rep. Sara Tindall Ghazal responded to the post, supporting the request. Grubbs said Mills never responded and that she learned about the letters Thursday morning “along with everyone else.”

“I really didn’t know it was going to be like, ‘Whoosh!’ and it’s done,” she said.

The resolution also gave Mills broad discretion in carrying out his directives. But Fervier — one of two members who voted against the resolution — said the letters “far exceeded” what the board actually approved. Grubbs agreed.

The resolution urged the Georgia Secretary of State to begin implementing recommended software updates, requested forensic copies of certain election system hard drives before any updates, authorized Mills to request federal assistance regarding the failed software update, and ordered him to assist existing federal investigations into QR code tabulation and voter data sharing.

Mills’ letters made much more aggressive demands. Mills asked the Justice Department to require state and county officials to install newer specific software before the November election. The letter also asked the Justice Department to completely ban QR code-based tabulation and impose a binding six-month deadline on Georgia to move away from it.

The controversy over QR codes dates back to the rollout of Georgia’s current voting system in 2020. The state’s touchscreen voting machines print a paper ballot that lists the voter’s choices, but also encodes them in a QR code, which is what is used in the table itself. Critics have long argued that such a system is not directly verifiable by voters. State officials have defended the system as secure and auditable — and audits show the system tabulates ballots as intended — but critics say hand-marked paper ballots or other changes would improve security and confidence.

Grubbs said his vote for the resolution was not intended to authorize the requests contained in the letters. “I know we don’t have time to do these kinds of updates until November,” she said.

The letters also contained allegations against Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, that did not appear in the resolution. They say he “appears to have misled the Legislature and the public” about the cost and feasibility of fixing problems with the election system. They also call on the Justice Department to investigate allegations that Raffensperger’s office altered, destroyed or withheld images of ballots, records of votes cast and voter rolls. Mills also called on federal officials to hold Raffensperger or other officials accountable under federal law.

A spokesperson for Raffensperger’s office rejected the request, telling Georgia Public Broadcasting: “People who take election security seriously don’t cause chaos at the last minute.” »

Fervier, appointed by Republican Gov. Brian Kemp and who served on the board for three years, said he viewed the letters as “a political hit against our secretary of state” and an attempt to sow “chaos and confusion” in this year’s midterms.

Federal agencies already actively monitoring Georgia elections

Neither the Justice Department nor the Department of Homeland Security have publicly indicated whether they intend to act on Mills’ requests.

A Homeland Security spokesperson told Votebeat that the agency “responds to official correspondence through official channels” and is “committed to restoring the integrity of our election systems and ensuring that American citizens and only American citizens elect America’s leaders.” The Justice Department did not respond to a request for comment.

The letters, however, come amid several other ongoing federal actions related to Georgia’s elections. The Justice Department is battling Raffensperger over access to the state’s unredacted voter rolls, while the FBI is conducting a separate criminal investigation into Fulton County’s 2020 election records after agents seized hundreds of boxes containing ballots and other materials in January. Homeland Security also sought Georgia voter records in immigration-related investigations.

The letters themselves are printed on State Board of Elections letterhead and cite the Sept. 28 resolution as the basis for their requests. They are calling on federal officials to “promptly consider” a series of actions involving Georgia’s election system, election records and voter registration data.

The resolution authorized Mills to seek assistance from the Department of Justice, Homeland Security, and “any quarter” and to take any action he considered “necessary” or “desirable” to advance the resolution’s goals. But that discretion was tied to the execution of the resolution itself, and Mills was required to immediately copy the board on communications related to that work, according to the resolution.

Fervier said the new demands and allegations Mills added to letters he wrote and sent without copying the board are proof he went beyond the authority he was given.

Grubbs also believes Mills overstepped his authority. “In a private company, if I told an employee I wanted to see something before it aired and they did, we would have a very different conversation,” Grubbs said. “I thought we were all on the same team.”

A long-running struggle for Mills’ authority

Mills, a former Republican state lawmaker and longtime member of the state Board of Pardons and Parole, has become a polarizing figure in Georgia’s election administration in the short time since his appointment.

Conservative activists have hailed him as an aggressive advocate willing to tackle questions about voting systems, voter rolls and the 2020 election that they believe other officials have ignored. His critics — a broad group that includes voting rights groups and officials in the secretary of state’s office — portray him as a destabilizing force whose actions inject politics and confusion into election administration. The division has repeatedly emerged in struggles over Fulton County’s 2020 records, voter rolls investigations and the board’s internal management.

At an August 2025 hearing of a Georgia House blue committee, held just three months after Mills took over as executive director, Mills openly attacked the officials who supervised him. He accused Fervier of excluding members from discussions with the secretary of state’s office, disregarding the wishes of the board majority and preventing even “simple changes” from being made, telling lawmakers he had “never served under a more dysfunctional and dishonest president.”

Mills also urged lawmakers to look to an earlier board meeting as evidence of Fervier’s dishonesty. The confrontation was not isolated: A few weeks later, Mills challenged Fervier at a public board meeting to “be a man” and relinquish control over the publication of meeting notices, prompting Fervier to tell him to stop questioning his manhood.

Disputes range from control of personnel and meeting logistics to correspondence sent before formal board approval. Earlier this year, for example, the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that then-board member Janice Johnston ordered Mills to send letters to Fulton County before the board voted to authorize them.

The board majority also repeatedly delegated more operational authority to Mills, saying the changes were necessary to ensure the majority’s decisions were implemented rather than blocked by Fervier, thereby widening the divide.

Firing Mills would require votes from three board members, and it’s unclear if that support exists. Grubbs said the letters troubled her more deeply than her other frustrations with Mills, which she said extended beyond this incident.

“I go and inquire and I don’t always get an answer,” she said, adding that she doesn’t find it timely or responsive. “I would have thought he would have been more willing to work with me.”

Jessica Huseman is the editorial director of Votebeat and is based in Dallas. Contact Jessica at jhuseman@votebeat.org.