The Brief
Nearly 471,000 Georgia voter registrations have been canceled this year.
State officials say the process is legal and protects election integrity.
One civil rights advocate warns it could disenfranchise eligible voters.
ATLANTA - Nearly 471,000 Georgia voter registrations were canceled by Friday, state officials confirmed to FOX 5.
The Secretary of State's review of the voter rolls focused on people who moved or have not voted in recent elections.
What they're saying
"People perish, move in the state of the state, or just across the street," Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said last month "We want make sure we have accurate list."
The state election director said they tried reaching out to each of the voters in question.
"Those people were on a 40-day clock which ran out over the past couple of days," State Election Director Blake Evans said. "And so at this point, those records for the people who did not respond to that mailer have been sent to cancel status."
What we know
This year’s list maintenance was legally required and done every other year, Evans said.
The cancellations made up about six percent of the voter list.
An additional 800 people had either died or requested their registrations be canceled.
By the numbers
Officials confirmed nearly 471,000 cancellations.
They said about 5,500 voters who received notification letters confirmed their information and kept their registration active.
Around 800 others either died or voluntarily canceled their registrations.
The other side
Voting rights activists have raised concerns about the process.
"The risk is that this activity ends up disenfranchising people who are eligible voters," Andrea Young, Georgia ACLU Executive Director, said.
But Evans disagreed.
"That's not true at all," Evans said. "This is a lawful process that we are following under federal and state law. It's very important to election integrity that we have. Accurate voter list."
What you can do
Evans said that voters who believe they were wrongly removed from the list can re-register online. He encouraged all voters to check their status at mvp.sos.ga.gov.
The Source
This article is based on original reporting by FOX 5’s Rob DiRienzo. Additional information came from the Georgia Secretary of State's Office.
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