National

Georgia removes 100,000 names from voter registration rolls

June 19, 2021

“Making sure Georgia’s voter rolls are up to date is key to ensuring the integrity of our elections,” Republican Brad Raffensperger mentioned in a statement. “There is no legitimate reason to keep ineligible voters on the rolls.”

The voter recordsdata being eliminated are “obsolete and outdated,” based on the assertion, which says that because the 2020 election, Raffensperger has “made it a priority to continue with the list maintenance process.”

Raffensperger — who was censured on the Georgia GOP conference earlier this month — has obtained harsh criticism from these in his personal occasion for stating that Biden gained Georgia in November and for refusing to assist former President Donald Trump overturn the outcomes of the election after his loss.

Raffensperger and his household have additionally obtained death threats because the election.

The effort to take away 101,789 names from Georgia’s voter recordsdata marks the primary time the state has carried out a “major cleaning” since 2019, however Georgia recurrently removes the voter recordsdata of convicted felons and the useless on a month-to-month foundation, based on the assertion.

“The 101,789 obsolete voter files that will be removed include 67,286 voter files associated with a National Change of Address form submitted to the U.S. Postal Service; 34,227 voter files that had election mail returned to sender; and 276 that had no-contact with elections officials for at least five years,” the assertion mentioned. “In each of these cases, the individual had no contact with Georgia’s elections officials in any way – either directly or through the Department of Driver Services – for two general elections.”

The full listing of “obsolete and outdated” names which might be being eliminated was printed publicly with the assertion.

In addition to the “obsolete and outdated” recordsdata, Georgia additionally eliminated “18,486 voter files of dead individuals based on information received from Georgia’s Office of Vital Records and the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), an interstate partnership of 30 states and the District of Columbia focused on maintaining accurate voter rolls,” the assertion says.

In his assertion, Raffensperger took a swipe at voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams, the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial nominee.

“That is why I fought and beat Stacey Abrams in court in 2019 to remove nearly 300,000 obsolete voter files before the November election, and will do so again this year,” Raffensperger mentioned.

Raffensperger has for years spoken out towards Abrams. Following her loss to Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp, Abrams began Fair Fight Action, a voting rights group that filed a lawsuit disputing, partly, Georgia’s removing of voter recordsdata for individuals who have not participated in current elections, based on the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

Georgia emerged as a serious battleground state this previous election and was dwelling to 2 pivotal races that decided the steadiness of the US Senate.

In March, Georgia Republicans sped a broad elections bill by means of the legislature that Kemp signed into legislation towards the objections of state Democrats and voting rights activists. The legislation imposes voter ID necessities for absentee ballots, reduces the variety of poll drop packing containers in massive counties and shortens the size of runoff elections, amongst different provisions.

Republicans defended the laws as essential to boosting confidence and safety in elections, regardless of election officials saying the 2020 election was essentially the most safe in American historical past. Trump had repeatedly promoted unproven theories in regards to the 2020 election and Georgia’s election system that took maintain amongst his base of supporters.

While Georgia was the primary state to enact new voting restrictions because the 2020 election, 13 different states have enacted nearly two dozen laws that prohibit poll entry, based on a tally by the Brennan Center for Justice. And different Republican-led states are advancing measures that may prohibit absentee and mail-in voting.

This story has been up to date with extra particulars and context.

CNN’s Kelly Mena, Fredreka Schouten, Dianne Gallagher, Pamela Kirkland and Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this report.

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