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Voting rights groups have filed a lawsuit in federal court accusing the Georgia secretary of state of purging nearly 200,000 Georgia registered voters from the state’s voter registration list in 2019.
The Black Voters Matter Fund, Transformative Justice Coalition, and the Rainbow Push Coalition say Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger canceled the voter registrations “based on the baseless claim that these voters had moved.”
According to the lawsuit, Raffensperger violated the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) when he failed to file a U.S. Postal Service (USPS) licensee to determine whether “a voter had filed a change of address form with the National Change of Address registry.”
“This error… cost over 68,000 people their right to vote.”
The lawsuit also challenges whether the state’s “Use It Or Lose It Law” is constitutional.
The voter rights groups claim an additional 120,561 Georgia registered voters had their registration canceled under this law.
Under the Use It Or Lose It Law, the secretary of state’s office assumes voters have moved if they have had no contact with an election official in three years; have not returned a confirmation postcard; and then failed to vote in the next two federal elections. If a voter meets these criteria, their registration is purged, the lawsuit says.
“According [to] the experts in list hygiene, however,” the plaintiffs argue, “fully 79,193 of the 120,561 voters whose registrations were cancelled in 2019 continued to have a verified address to receive mail at their original address of registration.”
The lawsuit calls this system “irrational.”
The voting rights groups’ lawsuit is based on a September report by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU). Raffensperger’s office at the time called the report “misinformation,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported, and demanded the ACLU either release its data or retract the report.
According to The New York Times, the ACLU’s report was based on an investigation by independent journalist Greg Palast. Palast’s investigation revealed most of the 300,000 Georgia registered voters removed from the rolls did not have a change of address.
“Unsurprisingly, the state’s removals will likely affect the most vulnerable: young voters, voters of lower income, and citizens of racial groups that have been denied their sacred right to vote in the past,” the ACLU said in a statement on the report. “Members of the Georgia General Assembly must rectify this egregious error.”
At a Wednesday news conference, state voting system implementation manager Gabriel Sterling said his office had not purged nearly 200,000 Georgia registered voters, according to The New York Times.
“I’m going to go with no,” he said. “Frankly, I’ve not seen or heard of this lawsuit yet.”
Sterling even suggested the word “purge” was not appropriate, according to the Journal-Constitution.
“Let’s not call it a purge,” Sterling said. “It’s federally mandated list maintenance.”
The state must keep the list updated in order to prevent ineligible voters from casting ballots, the Journal-Constitution reported. In addition to being removed under the provisions of Use It Or Lose It, voters are removed from the rolls when they die, move away or are convicted of a felony.
Black Voters Matter Fund co-founder LaTosha Brown said voter fraud was not the problem with the 2020 election, the Times reported.
“It’s been voter suppression,” she said during a news conference Wednesday. “Massive scale voter suppression.”
The voter rights groups want the Court to compel the secretary of state’s office to ensure the voter rolls are accurate and to restore the wrongfully cancelled registrations ahead of the state’s upcoming runoff elections.
The runoffs were scheduled for Jan. 5 after two Senate races in the Nov. 3 general election resulted in no candidate receiving at least 50% of the vote, The New York Times reported. If Democrats win both of those races, they will take Senate control from Republicans.
Alternatively, the plaintiffs are asking the Court to order the defendant to meet with experts from the Palast Investigative Fund “in the presence of a special master or other expert to be appointed by the Court” so the experts can demonstrate their reasons as to why each of the cancelled registrations had not moved; Raffensperger’s office should then be required to restore those registrations.
The plaintiffs also seek to recover their costs, expenses, attorneys’ fees and any other relief the Court deems appropriate
Did you vote in Georgia? What is your opinion on the Georgia registered voters lawsuit? Tell us your thoughts in the comments section below.
The plaintiffs are represented by Gerald A. Griggs; and Jeanne Mirer of Mirer, Mazzocchi & Julien PLLC.
The Georgia Registered Voters Lawsuit is Black Voters Matter Fund, et al. v. Brad Raffensperger, Case No. 1:20-cv-04869-SCJ, in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division.
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One thought on Georgia Registered Voters Were Erroneously Purged According to a New Lawsuit
wow hope they get millions so other states will not try this pooh!