ACLU of Georgia Calls on Secretary of State to Stop Removing Citizens from the Voter Rolls

ATLANTA – The ACLU of Georgia has found discrepancies in the Secretary of State’s office list of 330,000 Georgia citizens whose voter registrations it intends to cancel. The list is supposed to include “inactive” voters who have not voted in two general elections. However, the ACLU of Georgia has found a number of citizens documented to have voted in the November 2018 elections, according to the Secretary of State’s voter history list compiled one month after those elections.

“Today, the ACLU of Georgia sent an open records request to obtain the voting history and other documents related to 70 individuals who were documented to have voted in the November 2018 elections. The voter registration of one Georgia citizen canceled in error is one citizen too many,” said Andrea Young, executive director of the ACLU of Georgia. “We call on the Secretary of State to stop removing citizens from the voter rolls and focus on serving the citizens of Georgia by ensuring access to the ballot and free and fair elections.”

The Secretary’s office has a history of massive error in canceling registrations. In 2017, the ACLU of Georgia filed a lawsuit against the Secretary of State’s Office for illegally canceling nearly 160,000 registered Georgia voters from the active voter rolls. On the eve of a final court date, then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp settled the ACLU of Georgia case by agreeing to comply with state and federal laws.

The ACLU of Georgia, the Coalition for the People’s Agenda, Georgia Association of Latino Elected Officials, Asian Americans Advancing Justice Atlanta, Common Cause Georgia, and other civic organizations will be monitoring elections on Tuesday.

The ACLU of Georgia encourages all Georgians with elections tomorrow to cast their ballots. Voters who encounter problems are encouraged to call the Election Protection hotline: 1-866-OUR-VOTE.