SOS: Audit finds 7 noncitizens attempted to register to vote in Habersham County

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger meets with county and election officials during a stopover in Habersham County in October 2019. (Daniel Purcell/Now Habersham)

Georgia’s first citizenship audit of voter rolls turned up 1,634 people who tried to register to vote but could not be verified as U.S. citizens, the secretary of state’s office says. Another 624 individuals were flagged by the Department of Driver Services.

All 2,258 individuals were placed in “pending status” and not added to the voter rolls. None of them have voted in Georgia’s elections, according to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffnsperger.

Data provided by the secretary of state’s office (see below) shows approximately 50 noncitizens attempted to register to vote in counties across Northeast Georgia, including seven in Habersham. Officials were unable to verify them through the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’ Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements (SAVE) program.

In the 624 cases flagged by DDS, the secretary of state’s office was not able to obtain the required information to utilize the SAVE verification tool. Those applicants remain in “pending citizenship” status.

“Ensuring that only citizens are voting in Georgia’s elections is key to upholding the integrity of the vote in Georgia,” says Raffensperger. “Leading the state’s first citizenship audit of the voter rolls is an important part of that effort.”

Raffensperger says the audit proved that Georgia’s citizenship check procedures work.

GA SOS Citizenship Audit results:

COUNTY

NUMBER

Appling 2
Atkinson 4
Bacon 1
Baldwin 1
Banks 1
Barrow 5
Bartow 8
Bibb 15
Bleckley 1
Brooks 2
Bulloch 4
Camden 1
Carroll 6
Catoosa 1
Chatham 31
Chattahoochee 2
Chattoga 1
Cherokee 7
Clarke 15
Clayton 141
Cobb 143
Coffee 4
Colquitt 2
Columbia 10
Cook 1
Coweta 7
Crisp 3
Decatur 1
DeKalb 345
Dodge 1
Dougherty 13
Douglas 33
Effingham 4
Fayette 9
Floyd 1
Forsyth 20
Franklin 1
Fulton 275
Gilmer 3
Glynn 6
Gordon 12
Gwinnett 221
Habersham 7
Hall 17
Henry 37
Houston 7
Jackson 2
Jeff Davis 1
Johnson 1
Jones 1
Lamar 1
Lanier 1
Laurens 3
Liberty 13
Long 3
Lowndes 12
Lumpkin 1
Madison 2
McDuffie 1
McIntosh 3
Mitchell 2
Morgan 1
Murray 3
Muscogee 27
Newton 5
Oconee 2
Paulding 17
Peach 2
Pickens 1
Rabun 1
Richmond 17
Rockdale 17
Spalding 6
Sumter 4
Tattnal 3
Thomas 1
Tift 6
Toombs 1
Troup 3
Union 1
Upson 1
Walker 1
Walton 8
Ware 4
Wayne 1
Webster 1
White 1
Whitfield 20

 

This article has been updated