Georgia Makes Big Election Move, Will Remove 100,000 ‘Obsolete’ Names From Voter Rolls
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger just announced “the first major cleaning of the voter rolls since 2019” and said he will remove 101,789 “obsolete and outdated” voter files from the state’s voter registration rolls.
The Dems are not happy about the move but they never are when it comes to this type of thing. Georgia law requires periodic voter roll cleanup according to officials but most residents assume it would be a nonpartisan and common-sense idea to properly maintain them so not only will the Dems lose in court if they challenge this, they will also lose in the court of public opinion. And remember heading into the crucial 2022 midterms when they left screams about all the new GOP voting laws at the state level as the reasons they lost – the courts will not allow anything illegal (political gamesmanship is not illegal).
And whatever happens after the court challenges, the Dems are suing in nearly every state that has enacted new laws, both sides will know what the rules are will plenty of time to plan a campaign around them so when the Dems lose they will have no one to blame.
“These people don’t live in Georgia anymore. Then you have 18,000 people who passed. So they are not going to be voting anymore. You need to have accurate voter rolls and proper list maintenance. It also helps your county election directors,” Raffensperger said.
His office issued a statement that said:
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is announcing the first major list maintenance effort following the November 2020 election cycle. 101,789 obsolete and outdated voter files will be removed from Georgia’s voter registration rolls to ensure the state’s voter files are up to date.
“Making sure Georgia’s voter rolls are up to date is key to ensuring the integrity of our elections,” said Raffensperger. “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. Bottom line, there is no legitimate reason to keep ineligible voters on the rolls.”
Other than the regular monthly removals of voter files for felony convictions and death, this is the first major cleaning of the voter rolls since 2019. Federal law makes it impossible to conduct list maintenance during general election due to federal mandates before federal elections that force states to rely on voter rolls that may include some obsolete files.
After the 2020 election cycle ended, Raffensperger made it a priority to continue with the list maintenance process. 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.
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 no contact list includes a relatively small 276 voter files because no-contact notifications were not sent out in 2017 due to a challenge of the Georgia law mandating that process. Secretary Raffensperger successfully defeated the challenge to the law and the process has been resumed.
The Secretary of State’s office also removed 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.
Georgia joined ERIC in 2019, a priority for Secretary Raffensperger. There was no record of any of these individuals having cast a ballot in the November 2020 election or January runoff.
Dem Twitter is not happy and already starting with the nonsense.
In Georgia, Secretary Raffensburger just purged 100,000 voters from the rolls. I'm betting he targeted Dem areas and people of color. This is absolutely outrageous! https://t.co/kfJblA0g1K
— Marcia Gilmore (@MarciaGilmoreSk) June 19, 2021
Georgia removes more than 100,000 names from its voter registration rolls https://t.co/MuuZC3nfz0
— Jon Cooper 🇺🇸 (@joncoopertweets) June 19, 2021