State: Rumors of a Georgia voter purge are not true

ATLANTA — Rumors spreading on social media sites accuse Georgia election officials of removing voters from registration rolls, but the state says not only is that not true, it is not even allowed under the law.

Gwinnett County resident Faith Harris says she rushed to check her own voting registration status after seeing posts on Tik Tok and Instagram.

[SPECIAL SECTION: Election 2020]

“I want to make my vote count so I want to make sure I’m in the system to go vote,” Harris said.

State election officials tells us these social media rumors are 100% false.

Channel 2 investigative reporter Justin Gray asked Deputy Secretary of State Jordan Fuchs if the state is removing any voters.

“Actually under federal law, we are not allowed to do that right now,” Fuchs said.

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According to federal law, you can’t remove anyone from voter registration lists within 90 days of a federal election.

The two Senate runoff races are less than two months away - Jan. 5, 2021.

“There is a federal blackout period that the state is currently in. So it cannot actually remove anybody from the rolls,” Fuchs said.

Making it worse, celebrities and social influencers are helping to spread false information on Twitter and other social media sites.

That means organizations like Fair Fight Action, a group led by Stacey Abrams, are working to dispel myths.

A spokesperson told Gray they’ve seen no evidence of voters in Georgia being purged and referred us to a Fair Fight Action tweet that says, “disinformation, including from well-intentioned folks, is harmful. viral scare tactics don’t help voters.”

Record amount of absentee ballots requested for Georgia runoff elections In a special election meeting Monday morning, Georgia officials say more than three quarters of a million absentee ballots have been requested.