There are more than 100,000 Georgians set to be removed from the state’s voter registration rolls unless they act in a timely manner.
State officials told Channel 2 News that the removals are required by law, and the maintenance of the voter rolls must occur every two years.
Critics of the move are calling this a voter purge.
According to Channel 2 in Atlanta, most of the more than 100,000 poised to being removed from the list have submitted change of address forms to the post office or mail sent to their listed residences were returned. More than 18,000 were removed because they are deceased.
“These people don’t live in Georgia anymore,” Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told the news outlet. “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.”
Gerald Griggs with the Atlanta NAACP said, “We already have lawyers on standby, I am on standby, just in case we have to file litigation. So we are going to be watching this, and we will respond if we believe voters have been disenfranchised.”
Georgia has recently joined with 30 other states to be part of the nonpartisan Electronic Registration Information Center, according to the outlet, which, according to Raffensperger, “will allow them to update the registration status of people who move out of state on a monthly basis, instead of every two years.”
Raffensperger has been heavily criticized by former President Trump for his role in Georgia’s 2020 presidential election.
