Georgia, what is going onnnn? A new report says that state officials have removed an estimated 107,000 people from voter rolls because they decided not to vote in previous elections. And this is all apparently legal! The #APM report found that voters were removed under the state’s “use it or lose it” law, which starts a process for removing people from voter rolls if they fail to vote, respond to a notice or make contact with election officials over a three-year period, according to @thehill.
After that three-year span, those who don’t vote or make contact with authorities in two elections can be purged from the voter rolls under that law. Similar laws, generally enacted by Republican governments, have been growing more common, the report says, with at least nine states now having them. The main issue and what the investigation concluded is that many people plucked from voter rolls under “use it or lose it” laws do not know that they have been dropped and are likely to be surprised if they are turned away from the polls on November 6th.
This report comes at a time when voter suppression has become a big issue in the Georgia governor’s race, where Republican #BrianKemp is up against Democrat #StaceyAbrams. As we have previously reported, if Abrams is elected to office, she would become the first black woman in history to serve as a U.S. governor.
Kemp is currently Georgia’s secretary of state, and his office oversees elections. Abrams has argued that Georgia laws and Kemp’s office have acted to suppress the votes of African-Americans in the state.
Kemp claims his office is following Georgia law and that he has acted to prevent voter fraud. The two are locked in a tight race that could be decided by a relatively small number of voters.
We’ll keep you updated on this story, #Roommates!
TSR STAFF: Christina C! @cdelafresh
