Georgia is set to remove more than 100,000 names from the state's voter registration roll in what they say is an attempt to ensure election integrity.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Friday released a public statement that detailed plans of the state government to remove more than 100,000 names from the voter rolls, noting that the registrations were "obsolete and outdated." The state secretary also said that the move is part of an effort to ensure the integrity of the U.S. election.
Election Integrity
"Making sure Georgia's voter rolls are up to date is key to ensuring the integrity of our elections," Raffensperger said in the news statement. He went on to say that is the reason why he took Stacey Abrams to court in 2019 to remove nearly 300,000 obsolete voter files before the November election. According to his statement, Raffensperger said that those who are not qualified to vote should be removed from the rolls.
The removal of the 101,789 voter files is based on the 67,286 obsolete files associated with a National Change of Address form submitted to the U.S. Postal Service. It also culled from the 34,227 files that had election mail returned to the sender. At least 276 people also had no contact with election officials for the past five years. The state of Georgia also removed 18,486 voter files of dead individuals, based on data given by the state's Office of Vital Records and the Electronic Registration Information.
The recent effort to remove the names from the state's voter files is the first time the state has conducted a "major cleaning" of its voter rolls since 2019. However, the state regularly removes the files of convicted felons or the deceased.
Fulton County Audit
On Saturday, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-GA, called out Raffensperger for only removing the voter files now and not during the November 2020 election.
"Are you worried about Fulton audit?" Greene tweeted.
.@GaSecofState why are you just now removing 100,000 “voters” off of Georgia’s voter rolls?
— Marjorie Taylor Greene 🇺🇸 (@mtgreenee) June 19, 2021
We know that these “voters” should not have voted in the November 2020 Presidential election.
Are you worried about Fulton audit? #TrumpWon
The Fulton audit refers to three separate investigations on accusations of election officials mishandling ballots in the 2020 election. On May 21, a Georgia judge agreed to open more than 145,000 absentee ballots filed in Fulton County.
However, the three separate audits did not find any evidence of fraud or wrongdoing that could have affected the results of the presidential election in Georgia.
This is not the first time that Rep. Greene has accused Georgia of election improprieties. In April, she claimed Fulton County saw widespread fraud during its election for chairperson. According to Newsweek, she said that the votes were collected in nine red solo cups and there were more votes than voters.
The removal of names from the voter rolls came after the state enacted a new 98-page bill that imposes new voting restrictions. Under the new bill, voters in urban and suburban counties would have limited access to ballots. It would now also be a crime to offer water bottles to voters waiting in line, according to an analysis by The New York Times.
