1,634 Noncitizens Under Investigation for Attempting to Register to Vote in Georgia

Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger gives an update on the state of the election and ballot count during a news conference at the State Capitol in Atlanta on Nov. 6, 2020. Reuters/Dustin Chambers

Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has referred 1,634 cases of noncitizens attempting to register to vote for investigation and potential prosecution.

Attempting to register to vote while knowingly being ineligible is a violation of Georgia law.

A citizenship audit conducted by Raffensperger over the past few weeks, which he said was a first for the state, discovered attempts to register to vote by noncitizens in 88 of its 159 counties.

Workers at the Gwinnett County elections headquarters process absentee ballots for Georgia's Senate runoff election in Lawrenceville, Ga., on Jan. 6, 2021. Ben Gray/AP Photo

Raffensperger, who has served as secretary of state since 2018, said in a March 28 statement that the results indicated that Georgia’s existing voting security laws worked because none of the noncitizens managed to register to vote or cast a ballot.

According to an April 11 statement by the secretary of state’s office, 69 percent of the attempts to register were concentrated in just five counties: DeKalb (345), Fulton (275), Gwinnett (221), Cobb (143), and Clayton (141). Some of them occurred as far back as 1997 and others as recently as February.

Eighty percent, or 1,319, of the attempted registrations had occurred since 2016, according to the April 11 statement.

The people attempting to register were placed in pending citizenship status and are required to provide proof of citizenship before they can be added to the rolls and cast a ballot.

Election workers tabulate ballots at the Beauty P. Baldwin Voter Registrations and Elections Building in Lawrenceville, Ga., on Jan. 5, 2021. Curtis Compton/Atlanta Journal-Constitution via AP

According to Raffensperger, current election laws pertaining to citizenship are being challenged in court by Georgia Democrats.

“As liberal states and cities around the country are changing their laws to allow non-citizen voting, I will continue to take steps to ensure Georgia’s elections are executed with integrity,“ Raffensperger said in his March 28 statement. ”Leading the state’s first citizenship audit of the voter rolls is an important part of that effort.”