|
Inform ★ Engage ★ Empower
September 2025
|
| |
|
|---|
|
|
|
Clean Rolls, Clean Elections
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
"The foundation of every election is the voter roll."
— Jason Frazier, Georgia voter integrity advocate
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
This month, we’re spotlighting Clean Rolls, Clean Elections — because integrity starts with who’s on the list. When voter rolls are packed with ineligible names, it doesn’t just raise fairness concerns. It throws off turnout numbers, wastes Get Out the Vote (GOTV) efforts and weakens public trust in our elections.
Keeping the rolls accurate sounds simple, but it’s deceptively so: junk data flows in easily, and what comes out is hidden in a black box — each county maintains its own data how it sees fit.
To cut through the confusion, we’re shining a Spotlight on the Voter Rolls that answers questions like: “Why are there 113 registrations for every 100 eligible citizens in Fulton County?” and “What really happened to those 478,000 records the Secretary of State claimed were purged?”
Election Day starts long before the first vote is cast. It starts with the list.
Paul Miller
Editor-in-Chief
|
| |
|
This newsletter is a project of the FCRP Election Integrity Team.
Thanks to Jason Frazier for generously sharing his time and expertise in our reporting on the Voter Rolls.
Send feedback or
Letters to the Editor to:
|
| |
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
|
Transparency Tug-of-War: Fulton BoC Stalls, SEB Acts
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
Fulton BoC Defies Court Orders on GOP Nominees
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
Julie Adams (R)
Current BRE
|
|
|
|
Jason Frazier (R) NEW to the BRE
|
|
|
|
What should have been a straightforward court-ordered appointment of Jason Frazier and Julie Adams to the Fulton County Board of Registration and Elections has turned into a saga of delay. Three times, judges have ruled in favor of seating the GOP nominees. Each time, the Democrat-controlled Board of Commissioners has resisted — now even facing a contempt charge. Instead of compliance, they are appealing the contempt. Another vote may come as soon as next week. How much taxpayer money are the Democrats willing to squander to pay their $10,000/day contempt fines?
|
| |
|
|---|
|
|
|
SEB Turns Up the Heat:
DOJ Help Sought as Fulton Withholds 2020 Election Records
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
In a 3–2 vote at its July meeting, the State Election Board’s Republican majority called on the US Department of Justice (DOJ) to help obtain key 2020 election documents from Fulton County — including voter lists, chain-of-custody forms, ballot images, security seal logs and scanner paperwork. Fulton has refused to comply with a subpoena issued nine months ago, even after admitting to double-scanning over 3,000 ballots during the recount.
The county's refusal to share basic evidence mirrors their push for election certification without publishing underlying records — like paying a car repair bill without seeing the itemized charges. As SEB Vice Chair Dr. Janice Johnston noted, “This case is not closed… not a single document has been presented to this board.”
For more details, click HERE. |
|
| |
|---|
|
|
|
|
|
Georgia’s Voter Rolls Are Bloated: Full of Junk Records Like These
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
There are 113 registrations for every 100 voting-aged citizens in Fulton County.
Statewide is 103.
|
|
| | |
|---|
|
|
Georgia’s rolls don’t just contain eligible voters: they’re bloated with junk entries, duplicates and missing data. Fulton County has more registrations than citizens of voting age, and the problem extends statewide. Sources: US Election Assistance Commission; Frazier research.
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
Bloated Rolls Destroy Trust, Dilute GOTV Efforts, and Frustrate Voters
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
🛡️ Trust in Elections
- Clean rolls remove ineligible records
- Ineligible records invite abuse
- Accurate rolls build trust
|
|
|
📣 More Effective Get Out the Vote
- Stop chasing empty doors
- Reach real voters only
- Turnout efforts pay off
|
|
|
⏱️ Better Voter Experience
- No bad data at check-in
- Lines move much faster
- Voters leave happy
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
Bloated rolls don’t just look bad — they create real harm. They undermine trust, waste campaign resources and frustrate voters at the polls.
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
Leaders of Every Stripe Have Incentives to Avoid Accountability and Transparency
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
Brad Raffensperger (Secretary of State): “Georgia’s voter lists are the cleanest in the nation.”
→ Protecting reputation/office.
|
|
|
|
Stacey Abrams (Founder of Fair Fight): “This is voter suppression by administrative process.”
→ Fundraising/turnout via victim narrative.
|
|
|
|
Nadine Williams (Director of Fulton County Elections): “We’re confident our voter rolls are well-maintained.”
→ Downplaying Fulton’s accountability.
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
When bloated rolls are exposed, leaders of every stripe find reasons to avoid accountability. Some declare victory, others cry suppression, and still others downplay problems. The incentives all point in the same direction: less transparency, not more. Georgia has 159 counties, each acting with broad discretion. The State Election Board exists to oversee elections, but without enforceable standards or reporting requirements, county actions remain inconsistent and opaque.
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
It's Easy to ADD: Even Bad or Incomplete Data
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
Georgia’s rolls swell quickly because new registrations flow in through the Georgia Department of Driver Services (DDS), online through the Secretary of State's website, and via federal forms. DDS in particular feeds in bad or incomplete data, with no effective filters to catch errors before they hit the rolls. The Paulding County Election Director presented the details to the Georgia Blue Ribbon Study Committee on Election Procedures, which is shown below. For the full presentation, click HERE. |
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
But It's Hard to DELETE: What the SoS Isn't Telling You About His Cleanup of 478,000 Records
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
The SoS doesn’t delete anyone.
He only forwards notifications to counties from ERIC, USPS, DDS and courts. Once inside each county's “black box,” some may act diligently, others minimally — but none of their results are reported. Georgians will never know how many of those 478,000 notifications led to records being removed.
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
Click on the picture to see a representative of Fulton County acknowledging to Commissioner Bridget Thorne that Fulton County does the bare minimum in maintaining clear voter rolls.
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
Fixing the Rolls Requires a Transparency Strategy to:
Reduce Risk → Strengthen Maintenance → Reimagine the System
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
🕵️ Audit invalid addresses (SoS flags records without valid residences)
📬 Limit absentee voting to elderly, disabled, overseas only
🪪 Tie eligibility to valid Georgia-issued ID
|
|
|
|
📊 Publish results: county-by-county adds & deletes
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
Tighten Maintenance
(Medium-term)
|
|
|
|
🔄 Align DDS data with voter registration requirements; Opt-in to register, not Opt-out
⚖️ Empower SEB with enforceable maintenance standards
🌐 Share data with neighboring states
|
|
|
|
📑 Report compliance:
Show what SoS flagged vs. what counties did
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
Eliminate Separate Voter Rolls (Long-term)
|
|
|
🪪 State ID = voter roll (North Dakota-style model) with party registration
🚫 Eliminate syncing of 159 separate county rolls
|
|
|
|
🖥 Centralize reporting: transparency & auditability built into the ID system
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
Clean Rolls Start With You!
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
🗳️ Volunteer in elections:
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
|
Mark Your Calendars and
Show Up!
Next Election:
Senate District 21 Runoff
🗓️Early Voting: September 13-19
🗓️Election Day: September 23
|
|
| |
|---|
|
|
|
- Register to vote
- Check your voter ID & district
- Update existing voter registration
- View sample ballots
- Election dates and times
- Poll locations
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
|
🙋♂️ Poll Watch. Poll Work. Win!
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
Poll Watchers Are Making a Difference in Fulton
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
This wasn’t supposed to be a big election year — but for our Fulton GOP poll watching program, it has been. Since May, our crew has covered every single election, even the Democrat PSC runoff. And Fulton Elections has noticed.
When our watchers caught ballot scanners returning unsealed in May, the runoff was handled differently — every machine was properly closed, locked, and sealed. When security officers were missing during the Senate District 21 special election in Alpharetta, our team raised the alarm. Thanks to Commissioner Bob Ellis, security was restored to protect poll workers and voters.
Our program is making a real impact — for voters and poll workers alike.
We need more people to join! Poll watching requires only a minimal time commitment, and there are also committee roles for recruiting, event planning, evaluation, and reporting. Whatever your talents, we can put them to work making Fulton’s elections stronger.
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
Ready to step up?
✅ Be a poll watcher — minimal time commitment, flexible schedule
✅ Serve on a committee — recruiting, events, reporting, more
✅ Become an election integrity advocate
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
|
Inside the Process: Officials Doing the Work to Get Elections Right
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
Update: The GA Blue Ribbon Committee on Elections continues its meetings.
Monitored by Kevin Muldowney, Vice Chair, FCRP
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
The Georgia House Blue Ribbon Study Committee on Election Procedures has now held 3 of its 6 hearings.
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
Key topics raised so far:
-
Creating an independent State Election Board (SEB), separate from the Secretary of State
-
Ensuring the SEB is fully funded with its investigators to clear a backlog of cases
-
Preparing for the end of QR codes by 2026 and defining a clear replacement path
-
Election directors confirming elections can be run with hand-marked paper ballots
-
Ongoing concerns that Dominion systems may not meet federal compliance standards
- Brad Carver, GOP spokesman for the Election Confidence Task Force, recommended that the Chair of each county's Election Board rotate between parties to provide a balanced voice.
Meanwhile, Democrats continued to fight against transparency. One proposed abolishing the SEB and having the Secretary of State regulate itself, while Saira Draper, the Panel's Democratic member, praised Georgia having bloated voter rolls, saying that it's testimony to our "very high registration rates!"
Why it matters: These hearings are limited—and so is the window for public input. Attend in person to speak during public comment (2 minutes max), or email your stance to the committee. They work for you.
|
|
|
|
Kevin Muldowney
FCRP Vice Chair
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
Send written testimony
Include this Subject line:
“Written Testimony for the Blue Ribbon Study Committee on Election Procedures”
|
|
| |
|
Attend a meeting
Thursday, September 18 Savannah
Thursday, October 2
Covington
Thursday, October 16
Americus
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
👉 Be positive. Be specific. Be brief.. 👈
No rants. No form letters. Let YOUR voice be heard.
|
|
|
|---|
|
|
|
|
|
