Stacey Abrams group files emergency motion to stop Georgia voting roll purge

A voting rights group launched by former Georgia state lawmaker and 2018 gubernatorial candidate Stacey Abrams filed an emergency motion Monday in an attempt to stop a planned purging of voter rolls. 

Fair Fight Action filed the motion just hours before Georgia had planned to wipe up to 330,000 voter registrations of inactive voters. 

“Georgians should not lose their right to vote simply because they have not expressed that right in recent elections, and Georgia’s practice of removing voters who have declined to participate in recent elections violates the United States Constitution,” Fair Fight Action CEO Lauren Groh-Wargo said in a statement. 

The Georgia secretary of state’s office had announced in October it would potentially reduce voter rolls by as much as 4 percent. 

The purge targets voters who have not participated in elections in at least six years. 

Georgia voters who have not voted, signed a petition or updated their registrations were sent a letter four years ago asking them to respond to remain on voter rolls, according to the secretary of state’s office. They were again sent a letter by their local counties a few months ago along with a postcard with paid postage asking to send a form back to remain on the voter rolls. 

Walter Jones, a spokesman for Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R), said the department would not comment on pending litigation. 

It is unknown until the process is complete how many voters could be purged, Jones said. 

Georgia purged some 534,119 voter registrations in July 2017, the largest removal of voters in U.S. history. 

The Supreme Court ruled last year that similar vote registration removals in Ohio were legal. 

Abrams launched Fair Fight Action in August. 

The Democrat lost her 2018 gubernatorial bid in Georgia to then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp (R). She has said that voter suppression enabled Kemp’s victory.