Emails obtained by the Guardian reveal a behind-the-scenes network of county election officials across the state of Georgia coordinating their policies and messaging to both challenge the outcome of November’s election before a single vote has been cast and enforce rules and procedures favored by the election denial movement.

The emails were obtained by the watchdog group Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (Crew) as the result of a public records request to David Hancock, a voter objector and member of the Gwinnett County Board of Elections. Crew provided the emails to the Guardian.

The communications span a period beginning in January and reveal the inner workings of a group that includes some of the most ardent supporters of former President Donald Trump’s election lies and ongoing efforts to portray the upcoming election as riddled with fraud. Included in the communications are agendas for meetings and efforts to coordinate policy actions and messaging as the swing state once again takes center stage in the presidential race.

The messages contain correspondence from a range of election deniers in Georgia, including officials with ties to well-known national groups such as the Tea Party Patriots and the Election Integrity Network, a group led by Cleta Mitchell, a former lawyer who served as an informal adviser to the Trump White House as it tried to overturn the 2020 election.

The group – which includes election officials from at least five counties – calls itself the Georgia Election Integrity Coalition.

Among the oldest emails released are those related to an article published by the United Tea Party of Georgia on January 30. The article, headlined “Georgia Democratic Party Threatens Georgia Election Officials,” was posted by an unnamed “administrator” of the website and was in response to letters sent to election officials across Georgia who had recently refused to certify election results.

“It can only be seen as an attempt to intimidate election officials,” the article begins, “that the Georgia Democratic Party has sent a letter to individual members of county election commissions threatening legal action if they do not vote to certify the upcoming election – even if the commissioner has legitimate concerns about the outcome.”

The letter was sent by a lawyer for the Democratic Party of Georgia to members of the election commissions in Spalding, Cobb and DeKalb counties. Members of the election commissions in those counties refused to certify local election results last November. In their letter, Democrats sought to warn those officials that their duty to certify the results was not discretionary, and to prevent further denials to certify, including in the upcoming presidential election. The United Tea Party of Georgia criticized the letter, calling it “troubling” and saying it was “Orwellian to require election officials to certify an election even when they have unanswered questions about the vote.”

Although the author of the article is not named on the United Tea Party of Georgia website, emails obtained by Crew indicate that it was Hancock, an outspoken election denier and member of the Gwinnett County Board of Elections, who became a leading voice in calling for more power to refuse to certify results.

“Okay, so I finished the article and posted it,” Hancock wrote in an email the same day he published the article.

The email was sent to some county election officials who believe Donald Trump’s false claims that the 2020 election was stolen and who continue to implement policies and push for rules based on the belief that widespread voter fraud could lead to a Trump defeat in Georgia in November. They include Michael Heekin, a Republican member of the Fulton County Election Board who refused to certify the results this year; his colleague Julie Adams, who has already refused to certify the results twice this year and works for the well-known statewide election denial groups Tea Party Patriots and Election Integrity Network; and Debbie Fisher of Cobb County, Nancy Jester of DeKalb County and Roy McClain of Spalding County — all of whom refused to certify the results last November and who received the letter Hancock objected to.

By February 4, Hancock apparently had not received much feedback on his article and shared it again with the group.

“No comments on the Georgia Democratic Party article. I guess it just didn’t get picked up by anyone important,” he wrote in an email to the group at 10:53 p.m. that Sunday night, and followed up with a link to the article five minutes later. “I think the message needs to get out, so share it if you feel like it.”

Democrats and election experts have pointed to Georgia court rulings dating to 1899 that make certification a “ministerial” rather than discretionary duty of county election officials. At a meeting of state election officials from several swing states on Monday, Gabe Sterling, an assistant to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, warned county election officials that they could be taken to court if they refused to certify the results in November.

The messages also indicate that the group’s members colluded on their false claims of widespread voter fraud. Before a December meeting of the group, Adams sent out an agenda through her email address TeaPartyPatriots.org that included an item about a “New York Times reporter touring several counties in Georgia.” Another agenda said that the Federalist, a right-leaning publication, was seeking “freelance writers (no experience required).”

The group has heard speakers at its meetings including state Board of Elections member Dr. Janice Johnston, a vote denier who smiled and waved at the crowd at Trump’s Aug. 3 rally in Atlanta, where he praised her and two other Republicans on the committee as “pit bulls” who are “fighting to win.” An agenda also said that Frank Schneider, a vote denier activist who has challenged the eligibility of more than 31,000 Georgia voters, would speak at a meeting. Other speakers at the group’s meetings include Garland Favorito, perhaps the state’s best-known vote denier activist, who continually pressures the state Board of Elections to launch investigations into alleged voter fraud and implement policies and rules that he and others frequently file. (In a separate release of emails obtained by the Guardian, Favorito is seen planning a July lunch with state election board chairman John Fervier, a moderate Republican who voted against the election denial-based rules recently passed by his Republican colleagues.)

Another speaker at the gathering was Salleigh Grubbs, the chair of the Cobb County Republican Party. He had successfully petitioned the state election board to adopt a rule giving county election officials more power to refuse to certify election results. Amanda Prettyman, an election denier who spoke about election conspiracies at a 2022 Macon-Bibb County Election Board meeting, has also spoken at the group’s meetings, as have Lisa Neisler, an election denier whose X-profile includes a photo of Trump supporters at a Jan. 6 rally before the Capitol attack, and Victoria Cruz, a Republican who ran for a seat on the county commission in May but lost.

The emails confirm previously released emails showing Hancock coordinated with Johnston on two rules passed by the state election board that give county election officials more power to refuse to certify results, as well as ongoing voter purges that Democrats say violate the National Voter Registration Act. Those emails also show Hancock’s initial response to the letter from Georgia Democrats warning county election officials like himself that they were legally obligated to certify results.

“If you have a moment, I would really appreciate your thoughts on this incredible letter from a Georgia Democratic Party attorney regarding voting to certify an election,” Hancock wrote to Favorito on Jan. 4. “I guess they’re trying to prepare for the 2024 election? I don’t understand how that’s supposed to work – if the (Electoral College) has no choice but to certify an election, why does it have to vote to certify the election?”