Alfreda Monroe hasn’t been inspired to vote for anyone since 2008, when Barack Obama ran for president the first time. But she doesn’t think choosing not to vote justifies having her voter registration canceled.
The retired grandmother of six, who lives with her husband in Hinesville, was one of an estimated 478,000 inactive voters due to have their registration canceled soon for declining to cast ballots in multiple election cycles over the last five-plus years.
State records show Monroe’s name was added to Georgia’s latest mass voter registration cancellation list due to returned mail that was sent to her old address. She said she never received a notice about her voter registration being canceled. On Monday, she said she visited a local board of elections office in Liberty County to re-register after someone from the voting rights group Fair Fight called and told her she was about to be removed from the rolls.
“[Voting] is my right, plain and simple,” Monroe told Capital B Atlanta on Wednesday. “If I choose not to vote that year, then I choose not to vote. I should have that option.”
The office of Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said it has sent notices to nearly half a million Georgians like Monroe since July 10, informing them their voter registration is due to be canceled in accordance with the state’s voter list maintenance policies for inactive voters.
Read More: Black Georgians Overrepresented in Mass Voter Registration Purge, Fair Fight Says
Those who didn’t respond to the notices by mail or update their registration information online or in person will have their voter registrations canceled in the near future.
Fair Fight says many individuals due to have their registrations canceled are folks like Monroe who are legally eligible to vote in Georgia. Some chose not to vote in recent election cycles. Others have changed addresses, but still reside in the state.
Black Georgians appear to be overrepresented among the list of individuals who fit this criteria.
Non-Hispanic Black people make up about 31% of registered voters in Georgia but made up more than 44% when people who voted in other states in 2022 and 2024 were removed from the overall count, according to a Fair Fight analysis conducted in July.
Only about 35% of people on the cancellation list were white under the same conditions, according to Fair Fight, despite white voters making up roughly 50% of the state’s registered voters.
Read More: How to Keep Your Voter Registration Active Amidst Georgia’s Massive Purge
Monroe was one of at least 180,000 likely eligible Georgia voters on the cancellation list who Fair Fight has contacted via text message, phone bank, or robocall since July 10. Fair Fight voter protection director Janetta Cureton said Black voters appear to be disproportionately impacted.
“There’s definitely a disparity there,” Cureton told Capital B Atlanta on Wednesday. “Voters need to understand that their vote is valuable, and if it wasn’t, [state election officials] wouldn’t be trying so hard to manage things in this way.”
Capital B Atlanta has reached out to Raffensperger’s office for comment. His chief operating officer, Gabe Sterling, recently told V-103 Atlanta radio listeners to use the secretary of state’s My Voter Page to update their information before Aug. 20 to ensure their voter registration isn’t canceled.
“At that point, you’ll have had a new contact with us and you’ll get moved back to active [status],” Sterling said in a clip posted on Instagram. “That way, you will remain on Georgia’s voter registration rolls.”
State election officials have said previously that moving away, dying, committing a felony, or choosing not to vote for more than five years and two general election cycles are reasons an individual’s voter registration may be classified as inactive and canceled.
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“No active voters are being hindered in any way by this [cancellation] mailing, and any voter that is impacted has multiple options to make sure they can remain in active status,” a secretary of state spokesperson told Capital B Atlanta in July.
Stonecrest resident Cordell Williams said he was disheartened to learn his voter registration was deemed inactive.
The 45-year-old insurance sales contractor said 2020 was the last time he voted. He said he never received a notice about his registration being canceled but learned about it on Sunday when he received a call from Fair Fight.
“Y’all have done more as far as contacting me than [state election officials] have done as far as a mailing system,” Williams told Capital B Atlanta on Tuesday. “As long as I pay taxes and I get up and I work every day, when and when I do not vote shouldn’t be a determination whether I can be a citizen of Georgia or not. That’s my right.”
