Federal Court Trial to Restore 198,000 Georgia Voters Purged From Rolls

By Nicole Powers, Greg Palast's Website

10 December 20

n December 10, Federal District Court Justice Steve Jones will hear a one-day trial of demand for injunction by Black Voters Matter and others to restore immediately the registration of 198,000 voters wrongly purged from rolls. The lawsuit was filed last week with the United States District Court Northern District of Georgia Atlanta division (Case number: 1:20-cv-4869).

The case alleges that Secretary of State (SOS) Brad Raffensperger violated the National Voter Registration Act when he removed around 198,000 citizens from the voter rolls by claiming they had moved from the address listed on their voter registration. Joined by the Transformative Justice Coalition and Rainbow PUSH, Black Voters Matter et al v Raffensperger states that none of those citizens had moved.

This lawsuit is based on the expert reporting of The Palast Investigative Fund and the official report that was released on September 1, 2020 by the ACLU of GA.

In summary the state of Georgia has wrongly cancelled the voter registration of voters because they supposedly moved — but they had not moved. Specifically, the state said that thousands of voters had submitted postal Change of Address forms — but the Post Office says they did not. Additionally, Georgia — in violation of federal law — used an unlicensed contractor who used the wrong list. The National Voter Registration Act says the state must use a licensee of the US Postal Service — they did not.