ATLANTA — The Georgia Secretary of State's Office has publicly released a list of all 313,243 people who will be removed from the state voter rolls.
That is about 4% of eligible voters. We wanted to see who is on that list, and why.
Channel 2 investigative reporter Justin Gray knocked on doors, made phone calls and searched databases for dozens of these voters.
[CLICK HERE: Check if you're on the list or update your info]
He couldn't check all the people scheduled to be removed from Georgia's voter roles, so we focused on just one neighborhood.
Gray knocked on more than 30 doors on Atlanta's historic west end.
It's not a scientific poll, but all the homes he checked seemed to be those of people who had either died or moved away.
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Gray focused on voters listed as "no contact," meaning they haven't voted in elections, responded to mailings or updated their information.
“If you’ve knocked on the doors, you’ve seen what we suspect to be the case," said Georgia Elections Director Chris Harvey.
Harvey said the Secretary of State's Office is following state law by removing these inactive voters from the rolls. After five years of no contact, the county lists a person as inactive. Then, after two more election cycles, that person is placed on the list.
By making the list public for the first time, Harvey said the office is hoping people who are still in Georgia and want to vote will update their information.
“I hope that anybody who gets one of these notices, who wants to stay active, turns it around and returns and stays active,” said Harvey.
In addition to knocking on doors, Gray searched for other people with his first name, Justin. He ended up talking on the phone today to a couple of people on the list who still live in Georgia and are eligible to vote.
Both said they had never voted and had accurately been placed on the inactive voter list and they did not plan to update their information to vote.
Cox Media Group
