Habersham County election officials are working to restore several dozen names to the county’s voter roll after a change in state election policy. That change will affect about 50 people locally, tens of thousands statewide.
Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp ordered the names be restored in the face of a federal lawsuit filed last month by the NAACP and other civil rights groups. The suit claims minorities were disproportionately impacted by the state’s practice of rejecting voter applications that didn’t precisely match information in state and federal databases.
READ: Thousands to be restored to GA voter rolls before election
Habersham County Election Supervisor Laurel Ellison says voters impacted by the change are being notified. “The voters that were moved into Cancelled status since October 1, 2014 will be taken out of Cancelled status and placed into Pending status and mailed letters giving them instructions of what they need to do,” says Ellison. “The verification letters will state that they have one year to respond before their application is rejected. The letter will also inform them that they will be able to cast a ballot as if they were an active voter if they are able to present appropriate ID at the polling place.”
Georgia denied 34,874 voter registration applications between 2013 and 2016 due to mismatched information, according to the Atlanta Journal Constitution. The lawsuit claims blacks were eight times more likely to fail the state’s voter verification process than whites and Latinos and Asian-Americans were six times more likely to fail.
