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Transparency is Non-Negotiable, from Georgia to Guantánamo
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Last year, we sued the Georgia State Election Board ([link removed]) (SEB), and specifically board member Janice Johnston, for delaying responses to public records requests in the lead up to the 2024 election. This week, we reached a settlement ([link removed]) that requires SEB members to properly preserve their records — a major victory for accountability.
Our lawsuit focused on Johnston’s refusal to allow the SEB’s open records officer to search the Gmail account she used for her work on the election board. We argued that delayed responses to our requests by up to six months, which is particularly troubling since Johnston is an election denier in contact with other election conspiracy figures.
“When officials who continue to challenge the results of the 2020 election are put in charge of ensuring ‘fair, legal and orderly elections’ in Georgia — but do so behind closed doors — the integrity of our elections is at risk,” said our Executive Director Chioma Chukwu.
Under the settlement agreement, the SEB will require that board members conduct board business exclusively through official government email accounts, and forward any communications about board matters received on personal accounts — including texts or messages received on messaging apps like Signal — to their official addresses so that they are preserved and accessible.
The settlement strengthens public oversight of the board’s actions ahead of the 2026 elections.
** Questions surrounding the Trump administration’s handling of food benefits during the shutdown
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Now that the government shutdown is over, the millions of people who rely on Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits should begin receiving them again. But there are still questions around how the administration handled the program during the shutdown. On November 2, an MSNBC reporter called attention to a notice ([link removed]) on the agency’s website that warned food retailers against offering discounts to customers paying with SNAP benefits, and claimed doing so would violate the “equal treatment rule.”
This week, we sent the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) seven Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests ([link removed]) for policy documents and records that could shed light on whether and how it communicated benefit restrictions to food retailers during the shutdown, and whether it adhered to official policies.We asked for the release of all responsive records created between October 27 and November 15.
** ICE records show bleak conditions and unpreparedness at Guantánamo Bay
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Documents ([link removed]) we obtained, reported on this week by the New York Times ([link removed]) , provide new details about the Trump administration’s use of Guantánamo Bay to detain immigrants. The records show U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) was not prepared to house individuals sent to Guantánamo Bay and that detainees — many of whom were not considered a public safety risk — protested the facility’s bleak conditions.
The records show “no plan, no foresight and no concern for the human cost of its own chaos,” Chukwu told the Times.
Learn more ([link removed]) about what else the documents revealed.
** American Oversight in the news
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* State Election Board settles records lawsuit brought by watchdog group (Atlanta Journal-Constitution ([link removed]) )
* Settlement forces transparency from election deniers on Georgia board (Democracy Docket ([link removed]) )
* A look into the early days of migrant detentions at Guantánamo (New York Times ([link removed]) )
* Open records advocates alarmed as DHS abandons text archiving software (Truthout ([link removed]) )
** Other stories we’re following
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* Supreme Court to hear major challenge to mail-in ballot laws (New York Times ([link removed]) )
* U.S. troops not liable in boat strikes, classified Justice Dept. memo says (Washington Post ([link removed]) )
* Kash Patel’s ‘effin wild’ ride as FBI Director (Wall Street Journal ([link removed]) )
* Judge won’t halt audit of Maricopa County’s election technology (Votebeat ([link removed]) )
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