A group suing over more than 55,000 “missing” voter registration applications across Georgia has filed a motion to dismiss DeKalb County from the case after reaching an agreement to ensure eligible Georgians there can vote Nov. 4.
The decision leaves Secretary of State Brian Kemp and four Georgia counties — Chatham, Clayton, Fulton and Muscogee — as targets of the lawsuit by the national Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights. The suit seeks to ensure everyone who registered by the state's Oct. 6 deadline makes the state's voter rolls.
A Fulton County Superior Court judge has scheduled a hearing for Friday about the suit, which asks Kemp and the counties to account for how they process voter registration applications. Kemp said last week that no eligible voter has been left off the state's voting rolls and called the suit "frivolous."
Kemp said then that his office had confirmed nearly 40,000 of those voters are active and on the rolls. He said almost 10,000 more were on a “pending” voter registration list kept by individual counties, meaning those potential voters have been asked to provide more information to confirm their identities.
At least an additional 6,000 registration forms involved so-called “canceled” voters. That could mean they are deceased or are barred from voting because of felony convictions. Others could not be traced because the forms were missing key tracking information such as a valid address or ZIP code.
The Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights, however, said it could not yet verify how Kemp tallied his list. It has asked for voter-by-voter accounting of the 55,000 people, plus records about the state’s ElectioNet voting system.
Kemp has urged any voter with questions about his or her registration status to contact a local registrar or check online at www.mvp.sos.ga.gov. He also has launched a new email address to accept voter registration queries — Kemp@sos.ga.gov — and said voters could call his office at 404-656-2871.
About the Author
