(Recorder of Georgia) As election officials work to remove out-of-date registrations from the state’s voter registers, one of Georgia’s biggest bulk voter cancellations is coming to an end after 40 days.
According to the secretary of state’s office, around 478,000 registered but inactive voters were scheduled to be removed. 218,000 more voters who were already registered were warned that if they didn’t contact their local elections office, they would lose their right to vote.
The purging, according to officials in Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office, is a standard procedure that states must follow to guarantee the accuracy of their voter records.
Because transparency strengthens public confidence in the accuracy and integrity of the entire election process, we carry out every stage of the list maintenance process as openly as possible and in compliance with State and Federal legislation, Raffensperger said in a statement.
If a resident does not cast a ballot in two consecutive federal elections, their voter registration may be placed in inactive status; if they do not cast a ballot in the next two federal election cycles, their registration may be revoked.
The bulk of those identified during the most recent round of voter roll maintenance are thought to be individuals who have moved out of the state, according to Gabriel Sterling, the secretary of state’s chief operating officer until recently.
According to Sterling, 4,000 people have informed us that they are here, and another 700 have already canceled. That’s precisely what we believe. These individuals will no longer be listed on our voter lists, which helps us maintain the cleanest voter rolls in the country. They have been absent for ten to eight years.
“So far, we’ve had about 300 people completely cancel themselves out of the active voters who risked being moved to inactive status, and another 4,000 people who said, Yes, we’re still here,” Sterling added.
Conservative groups have focused on Georgia’s voter registers in recent years, repeating unverified allegations that the 2020 presidential election was rigged. Additionally, a lot of activists have taken it upon themselves to contest voter registrations that they believe to be shady; occasionally, they will file tens of thousands of challenges at once.
Right-wing activists’ concerns may be allayed by initiatives to proactively eliminate inactive voters. However, organizations like Fair Fight have criticized Raffensperger’s efforts, arguing that Black voters are disproportionately affected by voter roll purges.
“This purge list disproportionately targets Black Georgians who likely still live here after excluding voters who cast ballots in other states and probably moved,” said Lauren Groh-Wargo, CEO of Fair Fight, in a statement. Young Black voters are being disproportionately affected by politicians’ hasty removal of voters based on faulty data.
Additionally, Sterling stated that he was thinking about running for secretary of state in 2026. State Representative Tim Fleming, a Republican from Covington, and Kelvin King, the spouse of State Election Board member Janelle King, are among the other contenders he might face if he chooses to run.
