Bolstered by new Georgia law, woman challenges around 900 voter registrations in Chatham County

Just days before a new law went into effect in Georgia that allows more sweeping challenges to the state’s voter rolls, a resident of Chatham County last week submitted the names of nearly 900 people she said should be taken off the rolls.

The number of objections, broken down into three categories, is higher than the Board of Registrars normally sees at their monthly meeting, said board chairman Colin McRae.

The voter challenges, turned over to the board at its regularly scheduled meeting last Wednesday, appear to be part of an organized effort across the state ahead of the November elections to prevent a repeat of what many Georgia Republicans believe was a fraudulent vote count that denied former President Donald Trump a victory in Georgia in 2020.

Since then, Georgia Republicans, under the banner of “election integrity,” have moved aggressively to shore up what they believe is the state’s deeply flawed electoral system. The new law permitting broader voter challenges that went into effect Monday is one result.

At last week’s meeting, the Board of Registrars struck the names of 641 voters that Helen Strahl, a local Republican Party activist, said had moved out of Chatham County and registered to vote elsewhere. McRae and the board’s staff are assessing the remaining challenges.

How Strahl compiled the list wasn’t clear.

A package of electoral reform measures passed by the Republican-dominated state legislature and signed into law by Gov. Brian Kemp in May makes it easier to invalidate a voter’s eligibility by removing previous limits on ways that a voter’s registration can be challenged.

Under Georgia law , it is the challenger’s responsibility to specify the grounds for why the voter’s registration is invalid.

The names and addresses submitted by Strahl included 497 voters registered in Chatham who allegedly moved to Florida, 266 voters who allegedly moved to North Carolina, and another group of voters who Strahl asserts were registered at unqualified addresses.

Under Georgia’s new law, SB 189 , owning or renting a post office box or mailbox service no longer counts as automatic proof of residency, a change that could imperil voting status for students or members of the military, for example. Anyone without a permanent address could use the county Registrar’s Office as their mailing address for election purposes.

Another provision of the law allows voters to be removed from rolls up until 45 days before an election. Still another eliminates the code used on ballots to count them electronically.

Sabrina German, head of the Board of Registrars, said that she had no confirmed number of voter names attached to post office boxes that were included in Strahl’s challenge. McRae moved at last Wednesday’s meeting to table those challenges for further examination.

Challenges upheld

Strahl’s list included names of voters who registered to vote in Florida or North Carolina, and despite having moved and submitting voter registration in those locations have also voted in recent Georgia elections, as well as their other state of residence.

Six people on Strahl’s list who have registered to vote in North Carolina already submitted a request to have their registration removed in Chatham, McRae said.

According to McRae, 122 people registered in Georgia following their Florida registration. He also says four people confirmed that their Florida registration date postdated their Georgia registration, so their challenges will be upheld.

McRae moved to uphold all 266 challenges for those in North Carolina and 375 challenges for those in Florida.

Around other parts of Georgia, the newly enacted voter registration law was already causing concern.

According to Candace Smith, who lives in Fulton County, someone challenged her voter status around the time of the May primary. She didn’t know who did it. And in the state voter registration system, there was no reason given for the challenge. Smith has lived at the same residence for 20 years and said she has voted in nearly all Georgia elections since finishing law school.

“A voter who doesn’t have the time or the resources to resolve their voter challenges might just give up,” Smith said.