Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced a new audit of Georgia voter registrations Thursday to ensure that only U.S. citizens are signed up to vote, following up on a previous audit that found zero votes cast by noncitizens in recent elections.
The audit will compare voter registration applicants whose citizenship status hasn’t been confirmed with federal data to verify whether they’re eligible voters.
Georgia also checks citizenship status when residents register to vote through the Department of Driver Services, which requires proof of citizenship or legal immigration status for driver’s licenses and state identification cards.
“This is a vital step in maintaining election security and integrity in Georgia,” Raffensperger said. “We are double-checking to make sure that if any noncitizens attempt to register to vote, they will not be able to vote unless they prove that they are U.S. citizens.”
The audit will compare voter registrations with a federal program called Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements to find potential noncitizens. The audit is expected to be completed in the coming days.
Georgia law requires all voters to be U.S. citizens, but cities such as Boston and San Francisco have allowed noncitizen voting in local elections.
During the prior citizenship audit two years ago, the secretary of state’s office found that all ballots in recent elections had been cast by citizens, but there were 1,634 individuals whose registrations were pending until they proved their status. Those voters are required to show documentation before they’re allowed to cast a ballot.
All Georgia voters are required to provide ID before voting in each election.
A federal judge upheld Georgia’s citizenship voter verification requirements during a trial in April.
Raffensperger’s move to audit citizenship comes the day after the Republican majority in the U.S. House passed a bill that would require proof of citizenship to vote, even though noncitizen voting is already illegal in all federal and statewide elections. The bill is unlikely to advance in the Democratic-controlled Senate.
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