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ATLANTA (December 18) – Outreach efforts by Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger helped more than 5,000 people keep their voter registration current during the federally mandated biannual list maintenance, the Secretary of State’s Office announced Wednesday, December 18th.
Nearly 2 percent of people responded to the opportunity before Monday night when the state processed list maintenance required by long-standing federal and state law.
The agency also announced that more than 462,000 people have registered to vote in the 12 months since the last election.
In October, Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger took the unprecedented step of posting online the names of people classified as inactive voters since 2012 who were subject to having their registration cancelled. That let people examine the list for friends and acquaintances or their own name in time to update their registration.
“The extra steps we took allowed us to reach people and help them preserve their registration. I consider that a success,” Raffensperger said. “The fact that so few people took advantage of the multiple ways they can update their registration – online, by postcard, in person, via the Voter Protection Hotline or simply by voting – shows that overall the cancelation list was properly assembled.”
Anyone can still check the status of their registration on mvp.sos.ga.gov where they can also register to vote again if they found they are no longer registered.
Raffensperger sent notices Nov. 6 to the last known address of 315,000 people who were classified as inactive voters. He took the added step of including a postage-paid postcard that they could return to either confirm their address or update their address.
Those who did not respond in some way, 308,753 people or close to 99 percent, had their registrations cancelled Monday night, December 16. Records show that two-thirds had never voted in Georgia.
At the same time, the state is experiencing record registration.
“The number of new voter registrations shows that Georgia makes it easy for people to vote,” Raffensperger said.
The largest number of new registrations, 363,000, came from automatic registration when people get a new or renewed driver’s license. Other ways to register include online at https://www.mvp.sos.ga.gov/MVP/mvp.do, at public libraries, high schools and colleges, military recruiting centers, where food stamps and other government benefits are enrolled. Some of the people whose registration was due to be cancelled wound up avoiding it by renewing their driver’s license.
A federal judge OK’d December 16th’s processing of the list maintenance at a hearing earlier that day on a request to halt it filed at the last minute by a group affiliated with a former political candidate.
The Secretary of State is Georgia’s chief election officer and has the mission to help ensure secure and accurate elections. County election officials run the actual elections and handle voter registration.
Georgia is a leader in election innovation and access with automatic voter registration through the Department of Driver Services, three weeks of early voting – including a Saturday, and no-excuse absentee voting. It is the top state in the number of motor voter registrations and in the last election cycle experienced record registration and a record increase in turnout.