FEC complaint accuses Georgia GOP of breaking campaign finance laws

Georgia’s state Republican Party was hit with a Federal Election Commission (FEC) complaint this week alleging that the party illegally accepted contributions from an outside group while failing to report them to election officials.

The complaint centers around a public partnership announced between the Georgia GOP and True the Vote, a Texas-based organization that provides poll watcher training along with other resources it says are centered around election security.

In December, True the Vote said in a news release that it was partnering with Georgia’s Republicans to provide “publicly available signature verification training, a statewide voter hotline, monitoring absentee ballot drop boxes, and other election integrity initiatives.”

The FEC complaint obtained Wednesday by Business Insider and filed by Common Cause Georgia and Campaign Legal Center Action argues that partnership represented an illegal “in-kind” donation to a candidate or political organization, which True the Vote is restricted from making under its IRS designation.

“What we’re hoping to do is to send a message that this activity does not belong in Georgia, this isn’t actually helpful for voters, and it doesn’t actually increase integrity or the trust value of our elections in Georgia,” said Aunna Dennis, executive director of Common Cause Georgia, in a statement to Insider. “We’re pursuing this complaint because this is not activity that is legal federally, and it shouldn’t take place in our state.” 

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True the Vote did not immediately return The Hill’s request for comment, but the head of the state Republican Party blasted the complaint as “ridiculous.”

“The complaint is ridiculous,” Stewart Bragg told Business Insider. “We used educational materials on ballot security that were available to anyone. If there is any illegal coordination going on, it is Common Cause coordinating with the Democrats to file baseless FEC complaints.”