In response to the lawsuits and allegations stemming from the 2018 General Election in Georgia, the state would have to change how it updates its voter rolls if a new initiative passes through the General Assembly.
The bill was filed by House Minority Leader Bob Trammell, a Democrat from Luthersville, and seeks to strike the entire OCGA 21-2-235 code section.
The language:
- Eliminates the “no contact” disqualifier, which pulls voters from the rolls if an elector has not filed an
- updated voter registration card
- has not filed a change of name or address
- has not signed a petition which is required by law to be verified by the election superintendent of a county or municipality or the Secretary of State
- has not signed a voter’s certificate
- has not confirmed the elector’s continuation at the same address 16 during the preceding three calendar years
- Eliminates the requirement of the Secretary of State, during the firs six months of odd-numbered years, to “identify electors whose names appear on the no contact list”
Effectively voter rolls would not be purged anymore, as currently required by law.
The law dates back decades but was last amended by House Bill 889 in 1997, a time when Democrats were in power and controlled the Governor’s office and both chambers of the legislature.
HB 889 was a bipartisan bill sponsored by Representative Sonny Dixon of Chatham County – a Democrat and later a WTOC news anchor, and co-sponsored by Democrats William Lee, Larry Walker, Jimmy Skipper, and Greg Hecht. One Republican signer backed the initiative — Robert Irwin. It was signed into law by Democrat Governor Zell Miller and took effect on January 1, 1998.
Trammell told AllOnGeorgia of the proposal of House Bill 6:
The process of purging people from the voter registration rolls solely because they haven’t voted in recent elections undermines the integrity of our elections process. We have separate statutes that address removal of deceased voters and that addresses change of address, both of which are supposed to be addressed by elections offices at the time of notification. Consequently, the principal effect of removing voters from the rolls for not voting is to take people out of the democratic process.
Lawmakers have until the 28th legislative day of session to pass legislation out of their respective chambers and on to the opposite legislative body in order for the bill to have an opportunity to become law this year. The legislative calendar has not yet been set.
You can read the bill here. It has not yet been assigned to a committee.
House Bill 6 _2019
