.@maggieNYT recently tweeted a @MotherJones article warning that “hundreds of thousands of voters are set to be purged in two key swing states,” which “potentially” gives Republicans “a crucial advantage by shrinking the electorate.”
None of this, of course, is true.
None of this, of course, is true.
Cynical pieces of this genre, an election-time tradition at this point, only allow Democrats to warn of widespread disenfranchisement and preemptively give aggrieved Democrats such as @staceyabrams a baked-in excuse for losing elections and smearing Republicans.
How many people who fall for these claims understand that both federal law and state law mandate the updating of voter lists?
In Georgia, we already know that hundreds of thousands of “voters” were not purged, because at least 62% of registrations recently canceled had surely moved away or died. Either mail was returned undeliverable or they had officially changed their address to a different state.
Other registrations were purged because the person hadn’t voted in years.
Georgia has automatic registration—so voters can be declared “inactive” if they haven’t participated in elections, contacted or responded to officials, or updated registration since the 2012 election.
Georgia has automatic registration—so voters can be declared “inactive” if they haven’t participated in elections, contacted or responded to officials, or updated registration since the 2012 election.
That’s state law.
Georgia sends everyone letters explaining how they can fix any potential problems.
Georgia, in fact, publishes a list of names online so anyone who has not received a letter can check if they are still registered.
Georgia sends everyone letters explaining how they can fix any potential problems.
Georgia, in fact, publishes a list of names online so anyone who has not received a letter can check if they are still registered.
Gov. Brian Kemp even recently signed a law that lengthens the period before voters become “inactive” from three to nine years.
As Atlanta reporter Justin Gray noted, you don’t hear complaints from these “hundreds of thousands” of disenfranchised voters because most “are either dead, have moved, or as some told me were registered automatically when they got a license and don’t ever want to vote.”
It’s important to note, as well, that despite what you’ve heard, and what Democrats are constantly intimating, @ajc analysis uncovered no racial disparities in the voter-roll purge, finding that blacks and whites were purged in proportion to their shares of registered voters.
Minority voting, despite state voter ID requirements and despite voter-registration purges, surged in Georgia, with black voter registration increasing from 43% in 2014 to 60% in 2017–higher than the percentage among white registration.
Georgia’s fortunes mirror a national trend. According to the Census Bureau, black turnout nationally grew around 27% in 2018. A Pew Research Center study found that “all major racial and ethnic groups saw historic jumps in voter turnout.”
Much the same goes for Wisconsin, where the Wisconsin Elections Commission decided this summer to simply ignore the state law. A judge just reversed that decision and ordered the state to purge over 200,000 voter registrations.
Most of those registrations are also people who have almost surely moved–the state uses the reliable Electronic Registration Information Center, which reports on voters who make official government transactions from an address different than their voter registration.
Then again, even if a voter in Wisconsin is somehow inhibited by the system, the state also features same-day voter registration.
However you look at these situations, though, “hundreds of thousands of voters” are not losing their right to cast ballots.
Even if judges began forcing Wisconsin and Georgia–and the seven other states with “use it or lose it laws”–to ignore the law, there’s no evidence that it would have any bearing on the election.
Because even if we conceded that 1/10th of these purges were inappropriate (and there’s zero evidence that suggests that even 1% of them are wrong), and even if we conceded that every single one would vote for Democrats (which is implausible), it still wouldn’t change the outcome
Not in Georgia. Not in Wisconsin. Not anywhere.
None of this is to contend that there isn’t a single person in the country who is being unfairly denied the right to vote.
But the notion that “hundreds of thousands of voters” will be stopped from voting in 2020 is nothing but destructive scaremongering
But the notion that “hundreds of thousands of voters” will be stopped from voting in 2020 is nothing but destructive scaremongering
