The American Democracy Minute Radio Report & Podcast for July 31, 2023
Today’s Script
(Variations occur with audio due to editing for time. Today’s Links below the script)
Georgia’s Inactive Voter Purges: When Voter List “Election Integrity” Maintenance Becomes Voter Suppression
You’re listening to the American Democracy Minute, keeping YOUR government by and for the people.
As we reported last week, Georgia and 20 other states remove voters who may not have voted recently, but are otherwise qualified, arguing it’s done for “election integrity.” When does routine maintenance become a tool for voter suppression?
States and counties typically mail notifications of cancellation. But in 2019, out of 313,000 inactive Georgia voters notified, only 4,500 responded by mail to reactivate their registrations.
American Public Media and the Atlanta Journal Constitution reported that after 560,000 inactive voters were purged in 2017, 87,000 re-registered. Sixty-five percent still lived in the same county – 23,000 of them at the same address – meaning they were still eligible voters. To re-register, they needed to have done so 29 days before the next election, unlike 22 states which have election-day registration. An estimated 30,000 voters re-registered, but too late to vote in the 2018 election.
For unknowingly canceled voters who showed up at the polls, most were offered a “provisional ballot,” which counts in the election tallies ONLY if the voter’s information is later verified by election officials. Only one in four Georgia provisional ballots was actually counted in 2018.
Protect your freedom to vote by checking your voter registration status at a tool we’ve linked at AmericanDemocracyMinute.org. I’m Brian Beihl.
Today’s Links
Articles & Resources:
Capitol Beat News Service – Nearly 200,000 ‘inactive’ Georgia voters to be dropped from rolls
NewsOne – Georgia ‘Voter Suppression’ Alleged Over Plans To Drop Nearly 200K Registered Names From Rolls
National Conference of State Legislatures – State Policies for Cancelling Inactive Voter Registrations
National Conference of State Legislatures – States with Same-Day Voter Registration
American Public Media Reports – (2019) After the Purge: How a massive voter purge in Georgia affected the 2018 election
Atlanta Journal Constitution – (2020) Many eligible Georgia voters were canceled in nation’s largest purge
Atlanta Journal Constitution – (2021) Purge warnings helped 4,500 Georgia voters save their registrations
Brennan Center for Justice – (2018) Purges: A Growing Threat to the Right to Vote
National Association of Secretaries of State: Check Your Voter Registration Status
Groups Taking Action:
Fair Fight Action, New Georgia Project, Black Voters Matter Fund, ACLU GA, Common Cause GA, League of Women Voters GA
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#Democracy #DemocracyNews #VotingRights #VoterSuppression