Georgia Removes Nearly 471K Inactive Voters From Registration Rolls

Georgia has canceled nearly 478,000 voter registrations as part of a routine post-election year audit aimed at maintaining accurate voter rolls, reducing the total number of registered voters from 8.44 million to under 8 million. The cancellations target voters who have been inactive for several election cycles, particularly those who have not voted in roughly a decade or have moved out of state, with notices sent to affected individuals to confirm or update their registration. State officials, including Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and Elections Director Blake Evans, emphasize that the process follows state law and helps ensure election integrity by removing outdated registrations. While voters removed from the rolls can still re-register and participate in upcoming elections, voting rights groups have criticized the mass cancellations as a potential voter purge that could disenfranchise eligible voters. The Electronic Registration Information Center played a significant role in identifying many of the registrants to be canceled, despite unsuccessful legislative attempts to withdraw Georgia from the organization. Overall, the state highlights high population mobility as a key factor behind the need for such regular voter list maintenance.