A federal judges in Georgia ruled on Monday that two counties in the state cannot invalidate voter registration based on unverified change of address ahead of the crucial January 5 runoff that will determine which party controls the Senate, Reuters reports.
“Defendants are enjoined from removing any challenged voters in Ben Hill and Muscogee Counties from the registration lists on the basis of National Change of Address data”, U.S. District Judge Leslie Abrams Gardner wrote in an order.
ADVERTISEMENT
Judge Abrams Gardner is the sister of former Democratic gubernatorial candidate and voting rights activist Stacey Abrams.
Local election officials sought to purge more than 4,000 voters in Muscogee County, which President-elect Joe Biden won in the November election after a local voter named Ralph Russell claimed he had accessed publicly available voting data to allege some voters on the rolls there no longer live in Georgia.
A similar challenge was brought by Tommy Roberts, in Bell Hill County which Trump won. About 150 registrations were challenged after Roberts once again claimed individuals changed their address.
ADVERTISEMENT
The county board backed their challenges in both cases even though neither men provided any additional evidence to support their claim.
More than 2 million people have already cast their ballot ahead of the January 5 runoff.
