The Georgia Secretary of State’s Office announced Friday the first major list maintenance effort since 2019.
The 101,789 obsolete and outdated voter files statewide will be removed from the state’s voter registration rolls. Decatur County has 238 voters as part of the statewide total slated to be removed.
These voters will be mailed to their last known address as listed on the voter registration rolls a confirmation notice. If these voters want to remain on the voter rolls, they need to return the confirmation notice within 40 days. If the voter has moved either out of the county or out of state, they need to note that on the notice and return it back to the Secretary of State’s Office so that each county can properly update the voter’s record.
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said other than the regular monthly removals of voter files for felony convictions and death, this is the first major cleaning of the voter rolls since 2019. Federal law makes it impossible to conduct list maintenance during general election due to federal mandates before federal elections that force states to rely on voter rolls that may include some obsolete files.
After the 2020 election cycle ended, Raffensperger made it a priority to continue with the list maintenance process. The 101,789 obsolete voter files that will be removed include 67,286 voter files associated with a National Change of Address form submitted to the U.S. Postal Service; 34,227 voter files that had election mail returned to sender; and 276 that had no-contact with elections officials for at least five years. In each of these cases, the individual had no contact with Georgia’s elections officials in any way – either directly or through the Department of Driver Services – for two general elections.
The Secretary of State’s office also removed 18,486 voter files of dead individuals 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 of Columbia focused on maintaining accurate voter rolls. Georgia joined ERIC in 2019, a priority for Secretary Raffensperger. There was no record of any of these individuals having cast a ballot in the November 2020 election or January runoff.
If a voter is not on the list and they know they have moved out of Decatur County, they may change their address by going to My Voter Page, www.mvp.sos.ga.gov. Also, you may return the confirmation notice and the elections office will forward your change of address to the correct county elections office.
There are a few exceptions for remaining on the local voter rolls if you are not currently living in the county, such as a college student, or member of the military or a spouse or dependent of someone in the military. Otherwise, if you have moved to another state with the intention of establishing a residency there, you are not entitled to remain a voter in Georgia. A form can be mailed to you that requests your voter registration be cancelled.
The list of Decatur County voters scheduled to be removed from the voter registration rolls are below.
[table “345” not found /]
