Right-Wing Activists Sue Fulton County, Georgia Election Board Over Voter Challenges
Two right-wing activists who’ve challenged the status of thousands of voters in Georgia are suing Fulton County election officials over what they describe as a failure to properly maintain the county’s voter rolls and respond to voter challenges.
The lawsuit filed Wednesday against the Fulton County Department of Registration and Elections and Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger alleges the county “does not maintain, nor does it even attempt to maintain, accurate voter rolls.”
There are over a dozen voting and election lawsuits in courts across Georgia.
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In Wednesday’s complaint, one of the Republican plaintiffs, Jason Frazier, claims he submitted a voter challenge on Aug. 4 that contested the status of electors who are no longer eligible to vote in Fulton County. Such challenges are allowed under Georgia law.
Frazier said his challenge required the Fulton County board to provide him notice of a hearing within ten days of the challenge. “But as of the date of this filing, the (county) continues to violate its obligation to respond.”
The complaint argues the county is violating the federal National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) and state law by failing to conduct routine voter list maintenance and not responding to his challenge.
Also at issue is a provision in the NVRA that requires states to complete any program used to systematically remove the names of ineligible voters from the official list of eligible voters no later than 90 days prior to the date of a primary election or general election for federal office.
The plaintiffs say the state is relying on the federal law as the basis for refusing to remove voters identified by challengers, even though the NVRA is referring to the removal of voters through an official state-run system.
“In other words, Secretary Raffensperger has falsely advised and/or instructed that federal law (NVRA) prohibits county election officials in Fulton County and throughout Georgia’s remaining 158 other counties from removing voters within 90 days of a federal election if the ineligible voters identified by a … challenge were found to be ineligible,” the complaint said.”
Raffensperger is a defendant in another pending lawsuit brought in July from pro-voting groups over Senate Bill 189, which made it easier for a Georgia resident to challenge another resident’s voter eligibility. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp signed the law in May.
Frazier and his co-plaintiff are asking a federal district court to declare that the county violated state and federal law and compel them to remove ineligible voters from the rolls before the Nov. 5 election. They’re also asking the court to reinstate any voter challenges that were denied based on the 90-day rule.