“Keeping Georgia’s electoral rolls up to date is critical to ensuring the integrity of our elections,” Republican Brad Raffensperger said in a statement. “There is no legitimate reason to keep ineligible voters on the lists.”
The removed voter files are “obsolete and out of date”, according to the statement, according to which Raffensperger has “made the continuation of list maintenance a priority” since the 2020 election.
Raffensperger – who was reprimanded at the GOP Congress in Georgia earlier this month – has been harshly criticized by its members for claiming Biden won Georgia in November and refused to help former President Donald Trump overturn the election results afterwards his loss. Raffensperger and his family have also received death threats since the election.
Efforts to remove 101,789 names from Georgia’s electoral records mark the first time the state has conducted a “major cleanse” since 2019, but Georgia regularly removes electoral records of convicted felons and the dead on a monthly basis, the statement said.
“The 101,789 obsolete voter records that are being removed include 67,286 voter records linked to a national change of address form submitted to the US Postal Service, 34,227 voter records that have polled mail returned to the sender, and 276 that have no contact with election officials had for at least five years, ”the statement said. “In each of these cases, in two general elections, the person had no contact with Georgian electoral officials – either directly or through the Driver Services Department.”
The full list of “obsolete and obsolete” names that will be removed was made public with the statement.
In addition to the “obsolete and obsolete” files, Georgia also removed “18,486 dead person voter records based on information received from Georgia’s Office of Vital Records and the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), an interstate partnership of 30 states and the district were “. of Columbia focused on keeping accurate electoral rolls, “the statement said.
In his statement, Raffensperger knocked out proxy attorney Stacey Abrams, the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial candidate.
“That’s why I fought and beat Stacey Abrams in court in 2019 to remove nearly 300,000 outdated voter records ahead of the November elections, and I will do so this year,” Raffensperger said.
Raffensperger has spoken out against Abrams for years. After their defeat by Georgia Governor Brian Kemp, Abrams founded Fair Fight Action, a voting rights organization that, according to the Atlanta Journal, has filed a lawsuit against Georgia’s removal of voter records for those who did not vote in the last election -constitution.
Georgia emerged as a major battlefield state in the last election and was home to two crucial races that determined the balance of the U.S. Senate.
In March, Georgia Republicans passed a broad electoral law through the Legislature, which Kemp signed against objections from State Democrats and suffrage activists. Among other things, the law stipulates requirements for a voter ID card for postal voting documents, among other things, reduces the number of ballot boxes in large circles and shortens the duration of runoff elections. Republicans defended the legislation as necessary to build confidence and security in elections, despite election officials saying the 2020 elections were the safest in American history. Trump had repeatedly spread unproven theories about the 2020 elections and Georgia’s electoral system that had prevailed among his supporters. While Georgia was the first state to introduce new voting restrictions since the 2020 elections, 13 other states have passed nearly two dozen laws restricting access to ballot papers, according to a record by the Brennan Center for Justice. And other Republican-led states are pushing policies that would restrict postal and postal voting.
This story has been updated with additional details and context.
CNN’s Kelly Mena, Fredreka Schouten, Dianne Gallagher, Pamela Kirkland and Veronica Stracqualursi contributed to this report.
