On Monday, U.S. District Judge Steve Jones allowed the removal of about 309,000 names from Georgia's list of registered voters.
The Fair Fight Action group, an organization currently suing the state for the voting irregularities that took place in last year's gubernatorial election, says that at least 120,000 of these voters are being unfairly targeted solely because they haven't voted since 2012. The other 189,000 have allegedly moved out of state.
While all states are required to keep voter lists updated, many believe that Georgia has crossed the line. Georgia is one of only nine states with the "use it or lose it" voting law, which allows registrations to be cancelled if voters choose not to participate in elections for several years, (the right to not vote is protected under the constitution by the way). In Georgia, the rule was seven years of non-participation. It was just recently upped to nine years by Gov. Brian Kemp.
"Georgians should not lose their right to vote simply because they have not expressed that right in recent elections," Fair Fight CEO Lauren Groh-Wargo told the AJC. "Georgia's practice of removing voters who have declined to participate in recent elections, violates the United States Constitution.
Judge Jones said that he ruled in favor of this mass cancellation because "any voter registration that is canceled today can be restored within 24 to 48 hours." He also said that he might still order election officials to immediately reinstate cancelled voters.
Georgia is no stranger to these mass voter cancellations. In July of 2017, Georgia removed over 500,000 voters from the registration list, the largest single removal of voters in U.S. history!
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