Voting is a right, not a “use it or lose it” privilege

The Georgia Secretary of State’s office has announced that it is planning one of the largest voter roll purges in U.S. history. Among the half a million voters that Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger is set to purge are approximately 100,000 Georgians who will be thrown off the rolls because they had no contact with election officials for five years and then missed two general elections.

“Voting is a fundamental right, not a use-it-or-lose-it privilege,” said DPG spokesman Dave Hoffman. “Secretary Raffensperger treating it that way shows he’s more interested in shrinking the electorate than in keeping our elections accessible, free and fair.” 

Following Georgia’s massive 2017 “use it or lose it” purge, 87,000 purged voters re-registered in Georgia, including 56,000 who re-registered in the exact same county – meaning they were removed from the rolls under the “use it or lose it” law even though they were eligible to vote all along. More than half of those voters re-registered too late to vote in Georgia’s 2018 election.

The Georgians set to have their registrations canceled under the “use it or lose it” law are separate from those identified as having moved or died by ERIC, a non-partisan voter list maintenance program used by 24 states to help ensure accurate rolls.