State Board of Elections release findings for 7 allegations against Stephens County Elections Office

The State Board of Elections has released its findings regarding seven complaints involving the Stephens County Elections Office.

According to information obtained by WNEG from the State Board of Elections under the Open Records Act, between November 2020 and January 2021, the Georgia Office of the Secretary of State Investigations Division received multiple complaints regarding the administration of election duties by the Stephens County Elections Office.

The allegations are as follows:

  1. Stephens County Chief Registrar Eureka Gober self-reported that her office had yet to enter all 2020 General Election early voter data into Election Net.
  2. Stephens County Elections Office did not process two applications for absentee ballots for the 2020 Primary and General Elections.
  3. A Stephens County voter did not receive credit for voting during the 2020 General Election.
  4. Stephens County Elections Office failed to register three voters in a timely manner, which resulted in one voter not being able to cast a ballot in the 2020 General Election.
  5. Stephens County elections staff violated ballot handling, collection, and transportation codes.
  6. Stephens County Elections Office did not report the accurate number of mail/electronic absentee ballots to the Georgia GOP during the 2020 General Runoff Election.
  7. Stephens County Elections Office failed to respond to open record requests in a timely manner.

According to the investigative findings there was insufficient evidence to prove a Georgia Election Code violation occurred for Allegations 3 and 6; however, allegations 1, 2, 4, 5, and 7 all provided sufficient evidence to prove a violation occurred.

Allegation 1 alleged that on November 2, 2020, Stephens County Registrar Eureka Gober self-reported that her office had yet to enter all 2020 General Election early voting data into Election Net.

Then, on November 3, 2020, Investigator M. Parris interviewed Gober regarding the complaint. Gober told Parris that she reached out to Stephens County Liaison Axiver Harris to re-open the early voting module in Election Net so that her office could complete the data entry requirement for early voters during the 2020 General Election. Gober stated her office missed the October 30th deadline because her Deputy Registrar April Roberts failed to complete the process. She says Roberts did not inform her that she still needed to add early voter data for approximately 800 voters until November 2, 2020. Gober told the investigator that Roberts did not ask for any assistance, nor did she report that she was behind until November 2, 2020. The Investigator then asked Gober if she had the capability of running reports in Election Net to view the status of Robert’s data entry. Gober said she was unaware of any reports that would allow her to monitor Roberts’ work.

The investigator then interviewed Roberts regarding the complaint. Roberts told the investigator that it was her responsibility to enter the early voter data into Election Net, which she did on a daily basis since the beginning of the early voting period. However, due to a lack of additional staff, and the unprecedented volume of early voters, she fell behind with her work. Roberts told the investigator that she had repeatedly asked Gober for assistance; but, was never provided any additional resources.

Then on November 4, 2020, Parris interviewed Harris, who confirmed that Gober called him to request that he re-open the early voting module in Election Net. He provided a report of Stephens County early voter data which showed 7,195 out of 8,000 early voters were entered into the module. Parris then asked Harris if Gober would have the capability to run a report in Election Net to review the status of Stephens County’s early voter data. Harris said all counties have the capability of running the report saying this particular report is often used as a reconciliation tool by county registrars to ensure county data is current.

Between November 4, 2020, to November 20, 2020, Roberts worked with Harris to upload the remaining early voters into Election Net.

Following the investigation, it was determined that there was sufficient evidence to prove an election code violation occurred.

WNEG News will continue its coverage of the remaining violations next week.