Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced Monday that he is referring 1,634 cases of potential noncitizens registering to vote in Georgia to local district attorneys, the Georgia Bureau of Investigation, and the State Election Board.
A few weeks ago, Secretary Raffensperger completed the first citizenship audit of the voter rolls in the state’s history.
“I will continue to secure Georgia’s elections from noncitizens attempting to register to vote and cast ballots in the Peach State,” said Raffensperger. “While Stacey Abrams and her allies are suing to eliminate citizenship checks despite overwhelming support for citizens-only voting, I will never stop fighting to uphold the integrity of Georgia’s elections.”
Lookout Mountain Judicial Circuit District Attorney Chris Arnt: “Attempting to register to vote by an individual who knows he or she is ineligible is a violation of Georgia law. I will work together with Secretary Raffensperger to investigate further and prosecute if appropriate.”
Coweta Judicial Circuit District Attorney Herb Cranford: “I look forward to working with Secretary Raffensperger and the Office of the Secretary of State to investigate these potential cases of noncitizens who attempted to register to vote. Protecting the integrity of Georgia’s elections is fundamentally important.”
Secretary Raffensperger is referring for further investigation the 1,634 noncitizens who were identified as having attempted to register to vote during the state’s first citizenship check of the voter rolls, executed by Raffensperger a few weeks ago.
The citizenship check of the voter rolls found attempted registrations by noncitizens in 88 counties around the state. The attempts spanned from 1997 until as recently as February 24, 2022. 1,319, or 80.7% of the attempted registrations, have occurred since 2016. The largest number of attempted noncitizen registrants were in DeKalb County with 345, followed by Fulton County with 275, and Gwinnett County with 221. Five counties – Clayton (141), Cobb (143), Gwinnett (221), Fulton (275), and DeKalb (345) – comprised 69% of the attempted noncitizen applicants.
None of the noncitizens were allowed to register to vote. Instead, because of Georgia’s citizenship check law that is currently being challenged by Stacey Abrams’ Fair Fight, they were placed in pending status and are required to provide proof of citizenship before they could be added to the rolls and cast a ballot in Georgia.
