Dozens of Bibb voters have to prove residency after accusations of false addresses, fraud

Dozens of Macon voters will have to explain to the elections board why their registered voting address was listed as a post office and not their home after the chair of the Bibb County Republican Party challenged hundreds of voter registrations.

David Sumrall, head of the local Republican Party, challenged the legality of several voters’ residencies during an elections board meeting Monday. He alleged 45 voter addresses were listed as post office locations, 47 voted from North Carolina and 151 from other states.

The Macon-Bibb County Board of Elections heard Sumrall’s claims but only accepted some of those challenges. The board voted that the GOP chair only provided enough evidence to challenge the 45 voters who had post office addresses, which puts those voters in “challenged status,” according to William Noland, the board’s attorney.

The challenges that revolved around out-of-state voters were dismissed because the board said he didn’t have enough evidence to make the claims legitimate.

This does not immediately prevent those people from voting, nor does it remove them from being a registered voter. But it could in the future.

“Our only course of legal action under this statute is to send them written confirmation and wait two federal election cycles, unless the voter confirms in writing that they have changed their residence,” board member Tom Ellington said.

A registered voter can be removed from the list if a voter does not respond in writing to the notice, and does not vote or appear to vote between now and two general elections for federal office from now.

“Based on my reading from the Georgia election code, we can’t remove inactive voters from the voting until two federal elections have intervened,” Ellington said.

Macon GOP chair’s challenges stemmed from new law

A new Georgia law that went into effect Monday is meant to make it easier for any resident to challenge another person’s ability to vote.

Senate Bill 189, the law that Sumrall made the challenge under, includes provisions that change the rules for determining residence, eliminate QR codes from printed ballots, and require election results to be released within 1 hour of the polls closing or before 8 p.m., whichever comes first. It also increases the number of things that constitute probable cause for voter challenges, which include an elector being registered at a nonresidential address.

But that didn’t entirely work out in Sumrall’s favor.

While 45 voters will be asked to prove their residency in Bibb County, the only evidence Sumrall had to prove 198 people voted in other states was 60 Florida voter registration cards and a spreadsheet.

He said he used an artificial intelligence technology called Eagle AI to find voters who moved from Georgia to other states, but still voted in May’s general primary election.

Under the new Georgia law, citizens can use the U.S. Postal Service’s National Change of Address list showing people have moved, as evidence to challenge a vote.

“The chance of a mismatch is next to zero,” Sumrall said.

Opponents of the law consider the list unreliable.

Ellington mentioned some people might just be living elsewhere temporarily.

“... You don’t know whether any of these voters are college students, members of the military, moved to engage in government service or U.S. citizens living abroad,” Ellington told Sumrall.

“It doesn’t matter if they are registered to vote in another state, they can’t vote in Georgia,” Sumrall responded. “They probably don’t even know they’re still on our voter roll and have no intention of voting in Bibb County. However, leaving them on the voter roll opens the possibility that someone else could fraudulently use their voter registration to vote.”

Sumrall needed to provide confirmation in writing from voters, such as their signed voter registrations, to prove his claims that their registration should be challenged, according to Noland.

“It’s a shame that some people are more concerned about the tool used than they are about the problems that the voter roll uncovers,” Sumrall said. “I think we do not need to begin down a path which will allow additional fraud in the voting process.”

Reporter Ava Chatlosh contributed to this story.