The Georgia State Election Board voted Thursday to refer a complaint against Carroll County Board of Commissioners Chairman Bill Chappell to the Georgia Attorney General’s Office for investigation. The election board cited a report from the Office of the Inspector General that found Chappell broke state law by campaigning inside a precinct while voting was taking place.

The report, prepared by Deputy Inspector General Chris Harvey, notes that Chappell “was present in the voting area on at least more than one occasion while his name was present on the ballot ... he did admit in an interview to being in the voting area at least 3 times the week of early voting, therefore the allegations indicated in this (report) are sustained.”

After considering the facts of the report, the board voted 3-1 Thursday in favor of passing the case to Attorney General Thurbert Baker’s office, with board member J. Randolph Evans the sole vote in opposition. Once the case is received by the Attorney General’s Office in the coming weeks, a more extensive investigation will be performed. If that investigation further confirms the allegations of illegal behavior outlined in the inspector general’s report, it will be reviewed by a judge with the Office of State Administrative Hearings who will make a recommendation back to the State Election Board. The board will then issue punishment as it sees fit, ranging from fines to requirements of additional training to a letter of open censure.

As it was recommended to the board by Inspector General Shawn LaGrua prior to the vote, the case should be “forwarded to the AG’s office for fines and other strong censures.”

Prior to last November’s election, during the advance voting period, Secretary of State Karen Handel’s office received complaints alleging Chappell was talking to voters and shaking hands before and after they voted at the David A. Perry County Administration Building precinct. At that time, Chappell, a Republican, was running for re-election against Democrat Herman Ayers, whom he later defeated by a wide margin.

Patti Brown-Traylor, elections supervisor for the county, said Chappell came to the polling place for several weeks leading up to election day, sometimes two or three times in a single day, during advance voting. On the Monday two weeks before the election, he was told “he needed to go upstairs” by a member of the elections staff, and the next day, when he returned again, Brown-Traylor told him the secretary of state had received several complaints from voters who not only felt it was a violation of the law for him to be there but felt they were being “intimidated.”

According to the inspector general’s report, Chappell said he was unaware he was breaking any laws until after Brown-Traylor informed him of such. During last year’s election season, signs posted on the entrances to the David A. Perry County Administration Building read, “No Campaigning by anyone (including candidates) within 150 feet of the outer edge of any building within which a polling place is established.”

In late October of last year, according to Brown-Traylor, Chappell said “that he was the commissioner of this county, and he had the authority to monitor any of the offices.” That conversation was verified at that time by Voter Registration Coordinator Janice Duff and other election personnel.

When asked about his presence at the precinct, Chappell said in October, “When I walked by and somebody stuck their hand out, I shook it, but I did not campaign.” He said, on average, he was there between two and three minutes.

On Thursday, he gave a similar account. He admitted that on multiple occasions he had gone down to the county elections office, which is in the same building but on a different level as his own office, to “check on early voting.”

He said, “I did go down to the voting area, and I would walk normally straight to the elections office and ask how early voting was going. I didn’t go down with any intent to campaign or disrupt or intimidate any voters or violate any law.”

While he noted that campaign contribution forms can be mailed by candidates to the elections office, he said it is common practice for candidates to physically drop them off and that “to go into see the elections superintendent, any candidate for office has to violate this law, that is to deliver campaign reports and anything else.”

To this, Secretary of State Handel, also the head of the elections board, said that such a line of reasoning was not defensible for any candidate for office.

“As most of you know, I am a former county commission chairman, and even when I had to file [my campaign contribution reports], I never went in where the voting took place,” she said.

Chappell replied, “Well I did, and I’m sorry.”

But it’s a violation of state law nonetheless, Handel said.

“Well that’s not what you’re supposed to be doing,” she said. “I read the investigation reports, the shaking of hands, etc., and when there’s an election, and your name is on the ballot, you don’t go into the precinct.”

State law is clear on the matter. O.C.G.A. 21-2-414 states, “No person whose name appears as a candidate on the ballot being voted upon at a primary, election, special primary, or special election, except a judge of the probate court serving as the election superintendent, shall physically enter any polling place other than the polling place at which that person is authorized to cast his or her ballot ... and, after casting his or her ballot, the candidate shall not return to such polling place until after the poll has closed and voting has ceased.”

According to the inspector general’s report, this is the statute Chappell violated, as confirmed by numerous eye-witness accounts and Chappell’s own testimony.

The report concludes simply, “The facts in this case indicate that Carroll County Commission Chair, Bill Chappell, violated O.C.G.A. 21-2-414(f) by being in the voting area greeting electors while his name appeared on the ballot.”