Does new voter portal ease voter registration cancellation or fraud?

(The Center Square) — Georgia's top elections official announced a new tool to allow voters to proactively cancel their voter registrations, but opponents say it could be abused.

In a release, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a Republican, called the Voter Registration Cancellation Portal "a convenient tool for any voter who wants to secure their voter registration by cancelling their old one when they move out of state."

The office plans to provide a "secure link to closing attorneys and realtors in Georgia so that cancelling an out-of-date voter registration will be a part of the moving process," according to a news release.

"It will also help keep Georgia's voter registration database up-to-date without having to rely on postcards being sent and returned by an increasingly inefficient postal system," Raffensperger said.

However, the Democratic Party of Georgia raised concerns that the portal requires what it called "basic identifying information" to submit a voter cancellation.

Groups have raised concerns about recent Georgia laws, including Senate Bill 202 , the Election Integrity Act of 2021, and the subsequent SB 189 . SB 189 includes several provisions, including eliminating QR codes on ballots, and opponents raised concerns about a provision that they contend eases the "obstacles to mass voter challenges" and possible removal from voter rolls.

"This portal is ripe for abuse by right-wing activists who are already submitting mass voter challenges meant to disenfranchise Georgians," DPG Executive Director Tolulope Kevin Olasanoye said in a statement. "Coming right on the heels of S.B. 189, this page is yet another move in Georgia Republicans' playbook to empower anti-democracy activists, and the Secretary of State must take it down immediately."

According to Raffensperger's office, voters who want to cancel their registration must enter their "secret personal identifying information," such as their driver's license number or full or partial social security number. The portal sends the data to county voter registration officials.

In a statement to The Center Square, Raffensperger's office called the portal "the most secure method for voters to cancel their voter registration" as voters no longer have to submit personally identifiable information through an unencrypted email or via the United States Postal Service .

"This is a convenience to Georgia voters who are in the process of moving out of state, secured by several layers of security tools, including recaptcha, to detect and block bots or other inorganic activity," the office said in a statement. "The portal requires more data points to cancel a registration than the traditional method of mailing in a signed note with PII readily available.

"Using the same FEDRAMP Compliant GovCloud technology that supports OLVR, Absentee Ballot Requests Portal, and the My Voter Page, the cancellation request portal also creates an auditable trail to identify any malicious individuals who would attempt to use the portal to cancel voter registrations without the voters' knowledge."

In a follow-up, office spokespeople said tampering with another voter's registration is a felony and that the submission via the Voter Registration Cancellation Portal is just a request and not a definitive voter cancellation.