Liberal groups filed a lawsuit on Wednesday alleging that Georgia election officials wrongly removed nearly 200,000 voters from its registration list before the 2020 election.
Three activist groups—the Black Votes Matter Fund, the Transformtaive Justice Coalition and the Jesse Jackson-founded Rainbow Push Coalition—sued Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger for the “wrongful cancellation” of voters who had moved or changed addresses.
Under Georgia’s “use it or lose it law,” election officials are required to purge voters from the state’s registration list if they do not contact any election official for three years and/or if they do not return a confirmation postcard and/or if they do not vote in two federal elections.
The liberal groups, however, argued that thousands of voters did not meet these qualifications but were removed from the registration list anyways.
In the lawsuit, they asked the court to reinstate more than 200,000 former active voters to the state’s registration list ahead of the critical Senate run-off elections in January.
“Given the close margins of the presidential election and the upcoming run-offs in Georgia, [we] seek declaratory and injunctive relief to allow those persons whose registrations were wrongfully cancelled to be placed on the voter rolls in time to vote in the Jan. 5 Senate run-off races,” the lawsuit reads.
Gabriel Sterling, Georgia’s voting system implementation manager, dismissed the lawsuit when asked if his office removed nearly 200,000 voters.
“I’m going to go with no,” he said. “Frankly, I’ve not seen or heard of this lawsuit yet.”
The lawsuit comes as President Donald Trump and his supporters also accuse Georgia election officials of wrongdoing—in the other direction.
Trump’s campaign filed a lawsuit in an attempt to overturn the results of the state’s presidential election, alleging that corrupt Democrat officials in Atlanta and other parts of the state had fraudulently added illegitimate votes during the wee hours of election night, after claiming they had shut down the counting.
Video released on Thursday showed poll workers toting in suitcases full of ballots when Republican observers were not there to document or object.
The “Republican” Governor of Georgia, @BrianKempGA, and the Secretary of State, MUST immediately allow a signature verification match on the Presidential Election. If that happens, we quickly and easily win the State and importantly, pave the way for a big David and Kelly WIN!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) December 3, 2020
