Georgia Voters Brace for Another Voter Roll Purge
More than 313,000 Georgia voters could lose their registration
Georgia voters are experiencing a déjà vu.
Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, living up to his promise, is preparing to cancel the registrations of over 313,000 voters (4% of all registered voters in the state) by December 24. The widespread purge of voters is a tradition that was started by Raffensperger’s predecessor, Governor Brian Kemp, who perfected the art of aggressive purges during his eight years as secretary of state. Between 2012 and 2016, he purged some 1.5 million voters. In July 2017, Kemp oversaw the removal of more than 500,000 from the voter rolls — one of the largest voter purges in history.
Typically, voters on purge lists have died, relocated, or are serving sentences for felonies. But a significant number of voters have been deemed “inactive” for failing to cast a ballot in the last few election cycles. Georgia’s secretary of state office claims that on the current purge list, 120,561 voters haven’t voted since 2012. (For the July 2017 purge in Georgia, 107,000 of the 500,000 registrations canceled were allegedly due to inactivity.) This type of voter disenfranchisement is otherwise known as “use it or lose it.”
