The endless quest to find voting fraud in Georgia has come to this: Lengthy state investigations into anonymous allegations from someone called “Totes Legit Votes” who reported voter registrations that might include incorrect addresses.
In several cases, an investigator found that victims of domestic violence or homeless people had used UPS stores or post office boxes as their addresses. Other voters said they didn’t know they were required to list their home addresses, and they agreed to update their registrations.
The State Election Board recently dismissed the “Totes Legit” claims, though it did find likely wrongdoing in a separate case involving a woman who voted in Columbus last year after moving to South Carolina.
The attempt to disqualify voters based on questionable addresses is the latest example of allegations by Republican supporters of Donald Trump who believe the 2020 presidential election was stolen. Multiple recounts and investigations confirmed Trump lost.
Over 100,000 registrations — 1 out of every 80 Georgia voters — have faced voter eligibility challenges since state legislators passed an elections law two years ago that allows any resident to contest the eligibility of an unlimited number of voters.
“Where does the information come from? It’s people that troll through databases and look for residences and found that these people are using a UPS address,” said State Election Board Chairman Bill Duffey at an August meeting, before he resigned last month. “The amount of time to research this has been enormous.”
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Credit: Miguel Martinez
Voting fraud is rare in Georgia, with few cases of illegal ballots confirmed by the State Election Board in recent years despite hundreds of allegations. Investigations have repeatedly debunked claims of ballot stuffing, counterfeit ballots and dead voters.
The state’s election investigation concluded that fewer than half of the addresses reported by Totes Legit actually broke voter residency rules, and errors that were confirmed didn’t amount to illegal voting, according to case files obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution through the Georgia Open Records Act.
- Nineteen voters acknowledged using non-residential addresses, in some cases because they frequently travel or wanted a secure mailbox, and almost all of them told an investigator they’d correct their registration information.
- Six people said they used UPS stores as addresses because they were victims of domestic violence or feared for their safety. Through a Georgia program called VoteSafe, victims of domestic violence can register to vote without having to publicly reveal their home addresses.
- Four people said they were homeless.
- Twenty voters couldn’t be reached by phone and were mailed letters.
- In another 69 cases, there was no evidence of a violation. Those voters are either registered at their home address as they should be, or they haven’t voted in Georgia in recent years.
Totes Legit wrote in an email to the AJC that they use public records to find when election crimes might have been committed. Totes Legit declined to reveal their name, identifying themself as a “citizen election integrity activist.”
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
Credit: arvin.temkar@ajc.com
“I don’t know or care if it is fraud on the part of the voter, an honest mistake, a stolen ballot used without the voters’ knowledge, or a ‘county error,’” Totes Legit wrote. “I find the possible cases and I report them. The same way you might call the police because you believe you saw a crime. It’s the government’s responsibility to investigate the case beyond that.”
The secretary of state’s office has opened at least 32 cases, involving hundreds of voter registrations, as a result of reports by Totes Legit since Dec. 31, 2020, according to government records obtained by the AJC. Eighteen of those cases are still open or pending presentation to the State Election Board.
Voters shouldn’t be canceled solely because of inaccuracies in their addresses, said Vasu Abhiraman, an election board member in DeKalb County, where Totes Legit questioned registrations in the August case. But he said it’s also important for voter registrations to reflect residential addresses so voters receive ballots with the correct local candidates.
“I do not support this loosey-goosey treatment that risks disenfranchising somebody,” said Abhiraman, an attorney who previously worked for the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia. “Eligible voters need to stay on the rolls, and if anything needs to be corrected, the local government needs to handle that.”
Totes Legit has also alleged ineligible voters in other states such as Florida, where several people have been arrested based on accusations that they voted in two different states. No arrests have been made in Georgia.
Conservative organizations such as Look Ahead America review public records and multistate voter lists to identify potentially ineligible voters, then report them to local election officials in Georgia and other states.
Twenty-two counties in Georgia have removed ineligible voters this year based on information from Look Ahead America, said Matt Braynard, a former analyst for the Republican Party who created the organization.
Look Ahead America reported the woman who voted absentee in Columbus after moving to South Carolina in May 2022. That case is now being reviewed by the attorney general’s office.
“One of the things that discourages people from voting is thinking that it’s all rigged and fraudulent,” Braynard said. That narrative has been pushed by Trump and his allies since he lost his re-election bid in 2020.
Braynard said his group’s efforts are evidence-based.
“We’re not out there making crazy claims we can’t back up,” he said. “Nobody wants to have an election tainted by fraud.”
While complaints by individuals and organizations are forcing Georgia election officials to investigate on a case-by-case basis, far more voter registrations are canceled during the government’s regular efforts to identify people who have moved away or died.
The secretary of state’s office canceled 189,000 outdated registrations in September and removed 101,000 registrations in 2021.
