Share and Follow
SAVANNAH, Ga. () – Almost 500,000 people are at risk of being removed from the voter roll in Georgia as part of a sweeping audit on the state’s voter registration list.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office is sending letters to 477,883 registered voters that were in inactive status for the 2022 and 2024 general elections, asking them to respond within 40 days.
If recipients don’t update their status within the allotted time, they will no longer be able to vote without re-registering.
“They’re sending out notifications that your voter registration has become inactive, and you’re invited to basically respond on the Secretary of State’s website, and say ‘Hey, I’m still here,'” James Hall, a Republican member of the Chatham County Board of Elections said.
Under Georgia law, a registered voter becomes inactive if they’ve had no contact with their elections office for five or more years, for any reason.
- Almost 500,000 voters to be purged from GA voter list
- Reverend at St. Benedict the Moor Catholic Church appointed to serve in New York
- HHI residents gather to honor longtime athletic director
- Storm Team 3: A drier pattern sets up for Tuesday
- Lightning struck-apartment building condemned
“If you have these loose ends because someone moved or someone died or what not, you have the opportunity for voter fraud or misrepresentation or other activities that would skew our election results,” Hall said. “How many voting machines do we need to put in one polling location? Do we need 5 polling locations or 7 locations in pooler vs 5 or 7 locations in garden city? One of the ways we make those calculations effectively is we measure the number of voters that live there.”
Though, some voting rights advocates told the audit could cause eligible voters to lose their status.
“You can make mistakes. We even had two super voters here who are staff members at Fair Fight. They vote in every election who received letters that they may be marked inactive,” Voter Protection Director at Fair Fight Action, Janetta Cureton, Ph.D. said. “Sometimes some individuals will receive these notices and then realize too late that there’s an issue or a problem and will be inappropriately removed.”
If you receive a letter saying you have been marked inactive or that you’re at risk of losing your registration, you can submit a status update on the Secretary of State’s website or through your state’s online voter registration to stay on the rolls.
