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Georgia just witnessed three major lawfare incidents in rapid succession — each different, each revealing the same pattern. This is what lawfare looks like, why it’s becoming the new normal, and how Georgia conservatives can prepare to defend against it.
Georgia saw three major lawfare incidents in the last few weeks:
A lawsuit against the State Election Board (SEB) was settled.
A baseless ethics complaint against a Fulton commissioner was dismissed.
The criminal case against President Trump brought by Fani Willis collapsed.
Each case was different, but all shared a common thread:
Lawfare is being used aggressively in Georgia politics — and unless we prepare for it with discipline, documentation, and professionalism, good people will continue to be targeted and taxpayers will continue to pay the price.
Encouragingly, as noted later in this piece, the Legislature has begun taking steps to close loopholes and strengthen accountability — a positive sign that Georgia is starting to respond to the problem rather than merely endure it.
In November, the State Election Board settled a lawsuit brought by American Oversight, which accused board members, including Dr. Jan Johnson, of conducting official business on private email.
The Board agreed to:
move all business to official email,
preserve all records,
end the use of personal accounts, and
pay $50,000 in attorney fees.
No wrongdoing was admitted, but the message was unmistakable: the process itself is the punishment.
Yet something encouraging happened: Jan Johnson raised more than $30,000 for her legal defense. Those funds now sit in a trust, where donors may request refunds or allow their contributions to seed a future Conservative Lawfare Defense Fund.
This is what readiness looks like — leaders stepping up early and refusing to be caught flat-footed.
Commissioner Bridget Thorne faced an ethics complaint filed by Commissioner Dana Barrett, alleging improper influence during a public meeting.
The Ethics Board dismissed the complaint for lack of probable cause.
What emerged during the process was revealing:
The complaint was drafted by attorneys at Krevolin Horst, the same firm tied to Stacey Abrams and Fair Fight.
One partner at the firm has represented Abrams for years and received more than $20 million from Abrams-aligned organizations.
Another attorney from the firm represented Barrett at the hearing.
This was not one commissioner raising a concern. It was a coordinated legal action by a political network.
And taxpayers footed the bill: $3,500 in legal fees and stipends for a baseless complaint.
Here too, there was a positive takeaway: Bridget Thorne stood firm, was transparent about the attack, and brought critical information to light. Courage at the local level matters.
In late November, Fulton County prosecutors dismissed the sweeping criminal case against President Trump brought by Fani Willis. After years of headlines and extraordinary legal costs, the case collapsed.
But thanks to a new Georgia law, defendants in dismissed cases may seek reimbursement of their legal fees if the prosecutor was disqualified or at fault.
Meaning: Fulton County taxpayers could now be responsible for millions in legal costs.
This is a hallmark of lawfare: even when a politically motivated prosecution fails, the public still pays.
Together, these three cases reveal a clear pattern:
Lawfare is coordinated.
It targets individuals personally.
The process is the punishment.
Taxpayers often end up paying for it.
Conservatives do not need to imitate these tactics. But we must understand the battlefield — and be prepared to defend against it.
Defending against lawfare requires:
disciplined compliance (no private email, clean records, tight process),
legal readiness (defense funds, pro-bono networks, early preparation),
professional communication and documentation,
political awareness (understanding networks and incentives),
stronger laws so bad actors cannot exploit loopholes.
This is not about fighting fire with fire. It is about protecting good people from being burned.
Earlier this year, the New Georgia Project admitted it illegally raised and spent millions during Stacey Abrams’s 2018 campaign.
The organization dissolved.
The Legislature is now moving to close the loopholes that made such abuses possible.
Proposed reforms include:
stronger subpoena power,
tighter financial reporting rules,
improved transparency requirements.
This is what a functioning system should do: correct abuses, strengthen oversight, and make cheating harder for everyone.
Jan Johnson and Bridget Thorne are standing up to coordinated attacks with courage and clarity.
They are transparent, professional, and prepared.
These are signs of a healthier, more resilient conservative movement in Georgia.
There’s more work ahead, but progress is already visible.
Lawfare is the new normal. But Georgia conservatives are not standing still.
We are beginning to build the readiness, professionalism, and defensive infrastructure needed to protect good people — and protect taxpayers — from coordinated legal attacks.
There’s more work ahead — but the work has begun.
[1] AJC — "State Election Board settles records lawsuit brought by watchdog group" https://www.ajc.com/politics/2025/11/state-election-board-settles-records-lawsuit-brought-by-watchdog-group/
[2] AJC — "Georgia State Election Board member raises money online for legal defense" https://www.ajc.com/politics/2025/11/georgia-state-election-board-member-raises-money-online-for-legal-defense/
[3] Bridget Thorne — Public Facebook Post https://www.facebook.com/Thorne4Fulton/posts/pfbid0BtugCtZdsRs2etsBEs885XPuokoq1NURPSRmUTdcfuvMVL8d3Q85MtUauJbAQfrjl
[4] AJC — "Georgia dismisses Trump election case, ending his last criminal prosecution" https://www.ajc.com/politics/2025/11/georgia-dismisses-trump-election-case-ending-his-last-criminal-prosecution/
[5] AJC — "Fulton could pay millions in legal fees after Trump case dismissal" https://editions.ajc.com/shortcode/AJC466/edition/2f80a25f-7cde-2234-13fc-b1dfe03459f2?page=5be43a73-538b-c5d0-cf8a-33c66547ff03&
[6] AJC — "Investigation into Abrams-linked group could spark new campaign laws" https://www.ajc.com/politics/2025/11/investigation-into-abrams-linked-group-could-spark-new-campaign-laws/
Paul Miller retired in the spring of 2024 and now devotes his time to strengthening election integrity in Fulton County. He has served as a poll worker, deputy registrar, poll watcher, and as an observer at the Fulton County Election Hub in Union City. Paul helps educate voters through the FCRP Election Integrity Newsletter and contributes practical insights from the field to support smoother, more trusted elections.
In retirement, Paul also works at the Atlanta Braves Clubhouse Store at Truist Park, where he enjoys talking with fans from around the world about baseball — and often, Georgia’s election reforms.
When I retired in the spring of 2024, I wanted to put my time to good use. I’ve always believed strong communities depend on civic involvement, so I began volunteering in election work. Over the past year, I’ve served as a poll worker, deputy registrar, poll watcher, and as an observer at the Fulton County Election Hub in Union City.
Seeing elections up close — how ballots are checked, how machines are tested, how workers handle issues — was eye-opening. It showed me how much effort goes into running clean, orderly elections, and how far removed that reality is from the headlines.
Around this time, I also took on an unexpected “retirement job”: working at the Atlanta Braves Clubhouse Store at Truist Park. Fans from all over the world come through, and surprisingly often, conversations drift toward 2021 — when Major League Baseball pulled the All-Star Game from Atlanta over Georgia’s election law.
Those conversations became the spark for this reflection. Because what people heard in 2021 — and what actually happened afterward — are two very different stories.
When Georgia passed the Election Integrity Act (SB 202), critics warned it would suppress minority voters.
President Biden called it “Jim Crow 2.0.”
Stacey Abrams echoed that language.
Activists accused the state of disenfranchisement.
Major League Baseball moved the All-Star Game out of Atlanta.
The national narrative was loud and simple: Georgia’s new rules were going to make it harder for Black voters to cast a ballot.
But what happened next told a different story.
The data tells a completely different story.
Early voting increased 212% over 2018
873,000 Black voters cast early ballots — a record
99% of all voters rated their experience excellent or good
Those aren’t the numbers of a suppressed electorate. They’re the numbers of an engaged one.
In 2024:
3.7 million early in-person votes
Nearly 285,000 absentee ballots
4,051,758 early votes total
Black voters again cast over 1 million early ballots
The dire predictions simply did not materialize.
Meanwhile, the Braves went on to win the 2021 World Series, and the All-Star Game eventually returned to Atlanta — a fitting coda to the storyline.
Serving in election roles gave me a firsthand look at how Georgia elections actually function. The system isn’t perfect — and that’s exactly why citizen involvement matters — but one claim from 2021 simply didn’t match what happened in the years that followed.
The accusation was that the Election Integrity Act would make it harder for people, especially minority voters, to cast a ballot. That was the core of the “Jim Crow 2.0” narrative.
But Georgia voters disproved that.
Turnout didn’t fall. It rose.
Minority participation didn’t collapse. It set records.
The Election Integrity Act didn’t make it harder to vote.
It made it harder to cheat — and easier for voters to trust the results.
Former Fulton County election board member Michael Heekin offers two insights from his service — including why Georgia’s 1981 election code no longer supports modern elections, and how electronic voting workflows limit transparency.
Reprinted with permission Originally published in The Atlanta Journal-Constitution By Michael Heekin November 9, 2025
Georgia needs a modern election code. The current was enacted in 1981.
Allow me to take this opportunity to share two observations about the administration of Georgia elections from my service on Fulton County’s Board of Registration and Elections.
I was a Republican appointee from July 2023 until my resignation in September, two months after the expiration of my term.
It does not provide practical, accessible guidance to the voting public or election officials — or the judiciary.
Calm hyper-partisan complaints through reform. Recently, based on an apparent misunderstanding of certain code sections, the Georgia Supreme Court ruled on July 10 that election superintendents could not investigate fraud in a precinct unless the number of persons who cast votes in an election exceeds the precinct’s total registered voters.
Forty-four years of piecemeal amendments and the manner in which the code is organized have made it harder to read than the federal tax code.
With low voter turnouts, this ruling provides ample opportunities to stuff ballot boxes and change election outcomes without triggering the point at which the superintendent has authority to investigate.
As a parting gift to the people of Georgia, Gov. Brian Kemp should personally shepherd a modern election code through the legislative process.
A well-drafted code could help calm the hyper-partisan political environment dating back to the 2018 gubernatorial and 2020 presidential elections.
Second, electronic voting systems have two major problems.
Their workflow is too complex, inviting inevitable human error, and they do not accommodate effective public observation at critical stages of the election process.
For example, on election night, votes cast at polling places are recorded on computer memory cards about the size of a postage stamp. When polls are closed, the memory cards are retrieved from voting machines and placed in containers with a security seal. Couriers transport the memory cards, without observer escort, through rush hour traffic to the election office. In Atlanta, this process often takes well over an hour.
Once at the office, if proper procedure is followed, seals on memory card containers are verified with seals placed on containers at the polling place. Memory cards are then carried by election workers, without observer escort, into an enclosed area to upload voting information from memory cards into computers to count votes.
Observers can witness this process only by standing behind barriers some distance away. What they can see is election workers inserting memory cards into computers and tapping on keyboards.
Even when observers can see the action on computer monitors, the information is indecipherable to anyone without excellent eyesight, experience with vote counting systems, and the ability to take notes super-fast (cameras are not allowed).
Contrast this process with paper ballots that can be counted at polling places under close observation of election observers and the public.
Which would you prefer to promote public confidence in Georgia’s elections?
Steve Smith of Milton has been a committed conservative for decades. He first volunteered as a Young Republican during Ronald Reagan’s initial run for president. In 2020, he began poll watching — and his very first assignment was unforgettable: observing a precinct beside Senator Warnock’s campaign office, where some poll workers wore Warnock T-shirts. It was a baptism by fire, and it convinced him that this work matters.
Since then, Steve has become one of Fulton County’s most active observers. A retired project and program manager for banks and insurance companies, he enjoys putting those skills to use inside the election process. He has watched at multiple precincts during advance voting, election day, observed tabulation and Fulton County BRE meetings at the Election Hub, and recently became the leader of the Poll Watching program for FCRP.
What keeps him coming back is simple: each shift offers a chance to understand elections more deeply and contribute to improving transparency just by being there.
As Steve puts it: “A good poll watcher is naturally curious, observant, and willing to keep learning. And getting started is easy — if something does not look right, report it. That alone makes a real difference.”
If you would like to explore becoming a poll watcher, Steve, and the other members of the committee (Kevin Muldowney, Lucy Skelton, and Autumn Summers) would be glad to talk and have you join the team. 2026 is going to be a huge election year in Fulton with impacts to national and state government. The team would like to expand membership to help refine, improve, and effectively operate the many aspects in our poll watching process.
Reach out to us at PollWatcher@FultonGAGOP.com.
CONTACT:
Info@fultongagop.org
ADDRESS:
Fulton County Republican Party
675 Mansell Road
Roswell, GA 30076
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