Allegations of voter fraud have to come light in several Georgia counties recently, and one of the cases referred to district attorneys originated in Morgan County.
According to Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger, 17 Georgians are suspected of voting twice in the 2022 November general election in Barrow, Chatham, Cobb, Douglas, Fannin, Forsyth, Fulton, Morgan, and Tift counties.
“One illegal vote cast is too many,” Raffensperger said in a story published by Capitol Beat News Service. “Georgians deserve to have their voice heard fully, not have it diluted by bad actors.”
According to the Secretary of State’s Office, the allegations came to light as a result of Georgia’s membership in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a network of 24 states and the District of Columbia that share data on voters.
Morgan County elections supervisor Jennifer Doran said that ERIC is a great resource that helps keep Georgia voter rolls up to date.
According to the SOS’s office, “voter turnout in Georgia has been on the upswing in recent election cycles, and Georgia saw the largest increase in turnout of any state in the 2018 midterm election and set turnout records in 2020 and 2022.
“Member states securely submit voter registration and motor vehicle department data to ERIC. ERIC is also certified to use official death data from the Social Security Administration and subscribes to change of address data from the United States Postal Service.”
The data is used to identify inaccurate voter registration records, deceased voters, individuals who may be eligible to vote but aren’t yet registered, and cases of illegal voting.
Doran said another case has recently come to light where an individual may have voted in Georgia and again in North Carolina. That case has been reported to the state.
The 24 states belonging to ERIC are Alaska, Arizona, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Massachusetts, Maryland, Michigan Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South Carolina, Utah, Vermont, Washington, and Wisconsin. Washington D.C. is also a participant.
According to ericstate.org, “Keeping voter registration rolls up to date is a challenge, because, every day voters move or die. Voters don’t always remember to update their registration, and family members rarely report the death of a loved one to election officials. ERIC was created to address these challenges.”
A paper published in 2012, “found that approximately one out of eight voter registrations in the U.S. were no longer valid or significantly inaccurate, more than 1.8 million deceased individuals were listed as voters, and approximately 2.75 million people had registrations in more than one state.
"Additionally, the report estimated there were at least 51 million eligible U.S. citizens who were not registered – about 24 percent of the eligible population.”