The Battle Over Voter Rolls

There is a battle being fought in the nondescript government meeting rooms of Forsyth County. Election deniers funded and backed by large organizations are submitting voter challenges using shoddy evidence that wastes county workers’ time and taxpayer dollars, as well as fuels these deniers’ ultimate goal - to sow doubt about our elections.

Forsyth County elections, and more broadly the entire Georgia election system, is safe and fraud-free. 

Yet since the 2020 election when Donald Trump pressured Georgia’s Secretary of State, Brad Raffensburger, to “find” just under 12,000 votes so that Trump could claim Georgia as a victory, these election deniers have gone into overdrive to help make these 12,000 mysterious votes a reality. 

Election deniers persist

This was on full display on June 28 when Rick Richards, CEO of Eagle AI, held a “press conference,” clogging up the lobby of the Forsyth elections office, to attempt to further his false claims of voter integrity. Along with Forsyth resident Stefan Bartelski, they say Georgia is filled with illegal voters. Local and national press attended the event and more can be found here, and here, as well as here. 

Those of us who attend the Board of Registration and Elections meetings regularly, held on the first Tuesday of every month and open to the public, notice that challenges are brought by only a small number of Forsyth residents who offer minimal evidence and often do not understand the law. In fact, just this past week, one challenger did not know that it is legal to register to vote in two states at one time (per the National Voter Rights Act) - but illegal to vote twice in an election. Another challenger attached wrong addresses to the voters she challenged and used information culled from Facebook and other non-vetted, 3rd party sources. She expected these voters to be struck from the voter rolls, and beware - this could be you. Out of due diligence, the county Board and office employees took six hours to adjudicate the challenge list, which is a waste of employees’ time and taxpayers’ money. 

To note, Forsyth County has seen over 60,000 voters challenged since the 2021 Senate run-off.  Of those 60,000 voters, only 790 have been canceled at the county elections level, less than 0.2%.  No doubt they would have been canceled by the official systems already in place by the Secretary of State’s office. Not a good return on the time and resources invested in this effort.  

Pushing back against challenges

A new law signed last month by Governor Kemp that went into effect on July 1, 2024 allows for providing less reliable documentation for these challenges. Right-wing activists are already preparing even more challenges, yet they are trying to solve a problem that simply doesn’t exist. There have already been 61 lawsuits nationwide trying to show voter fraud and each and every one has lost. The non-partisan Brennan Center chronicles efforts here. 

We expect not only the challenges to continue but also the vitriol toward voters’ rights to increase. What can you do to counter these attacks? Check your voter status often and consider coming to the meetings. Learn what right-wing citizens and politicians are saying to sow doubt and fear into our elections. Share The Kicker with friends and family and talk about how there is no fraud in our Georgia election systems and that your vote is safe, especially in Forsyth County.