Georgia’s secretary of state office has canceled over 100,000 inactive voter registration this summer in the largest clean-up since 2019, according to state election records.
Records obtained by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution show that Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger’s office in July canceled 101,217 voter registrations, slightly fewer than the 101,789 registrations that were originally considered for clearing.
The number of voter registrations Georgia planned to cancel declined due to a lack of response from some voters who were mailed notifications. Those voters were given 40 days to respond before their registration was terminated, or re-registered to vote at DMV offices, according to the outlet.
In a statement published by Raffensperger’s office in June, the secretary of state announced the initiative to clean voter rolls to ensure “the integrity of our elections,” following the controversial 2020 presidential election. Fulton County, Georgia was at the center of many Americans’ voter fraud concerns.
“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,” he continued.
The 101,789 “obsolete voter files” election officials planned to remove included “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 state 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).”
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution provided the final cancellations numbers and reason.
66,323: Filed a change-of-address request with the U.S. Postal Service
33,525: Election mail was returned as undeliverable
1,098: Voters died or had a different reason for removal
271: Haven’t voted since 2012
Had the voter rolls been scrubbed before the 2020 presidential election, it may have reduced the risk of fraud and perhaps resulted differently. Joe Biden received Georgia’s 16 electoral votes after receiving just 11,779 more votes than President Trump.
