Secretary of State says more than 1,600 non-US residents tried to register to vote in Georgia

ATLANTA — Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger announced his office had discovered roughly 1,600 non-citizens attempted to register to vote through his office.

It is illegal for non-citizens to vote in Georgia, and Raffensperger announced he had started the first-ever citizenship review of Georgia’s voter rolls.

He told Channel 2′s Richard Elliot that the Georgia Department of Driver Services had flagged more than 4,500 potential violations, and his office’s investigation team had whittled that number down to 1,634 after running the names through a federal citizenship database. That number could go up.

“Georgia has a law in place,” Raffensperger said. “I’m going to enforce this law that we are not going to allow non-citizens to vote in American. The only people who should vote in Georgia elections are American citizens.”

Raffensperger has called for the creation of a constitutional amendment that would prevent non-citizens from voting.

He said in some places across the United States, municipalities and school districts have allowed non-citizens to vote.

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“It is important,” he said. “We’re going to make sure that we follow Georgia law that requires only American citizens can be on the voter rolls, only American citizens can vote in our election.”

Raffensperger is facing a tough reelection from both Republicans and Democrats.

He has often been the target of former President Donald Trump’s ire, seen during Trump’s political rally in Commerce on Saturday.

Trump is endorsing former Georgia Rep. Jody Hice. Hice talked about Raffensperger during that rally.

“We currently have a Secretary of State who seems to care less about the rule of law in our state as it relates to violations of our elections,” Hice said.

Democratic candidates agreed the current law and system worked and said Georgia doesn’t need a new constitutional amendment.

“I disagree with his assertion that a Georgia constitutional amendment is needed, because Georgia law already prohibits this,” said former Fulton County Commission Chair John Eaves.

“The findings that Secretary Raffensperger have published show that the law works,” said Democratic State Rep. Bee Nguyen. “The non-citizens that have been flagged were not added to the voter rolls. They are not voting.”

The Secretary of State’s Office provided the following numbers and figures about the registration attempts:

Total: 1634

Earliest attempted registration: 2/25/1997

Most recent attempted registration: 02/24/2022

By Decade

90s: 2 total attempted registrants (1997 and 1998), 0.1% of total

2000s: 19 total attempted registrants (2001, 2003, 2004, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2010), 1.16% of total

2010s: 1575 total attempted registrants (All years), 96% of total

2020s: 38 total attempted registrants (2021 and 2022), 2.3% of total

5 years before most recent attempted registration: 1,109, 62.3% of total

Attempted registrations since 2016: 1,319, 80.7% of total

By Year

1997: 1 total attempted registrant

1998: 1 total attempted registrant

1999: 0 total attempted registrants

2000: 0 total attempted registrants

2001: 1 total attempted registrant

2002: 0 total attempted registrants

2003: 1 total attempted registrant

2004: 6 total attempted registrants

2005: 0 total attempted registrants

2006: 2 total attempted registrants

2007: 1 total attempted registrant

2008: 5 total attempted registrants

2009: 0 total attempted registrants

2010: 3 total attempted registrants

2011: 5 total attempted registrants

2012: 61 total attempted registrants

2013: 30 total attempted registrants

2014: 129 total attempted registrants

2015: 69 total attempted registrants

2016: 294 total attempted registrants

2017: 128 total attempted registrants

2018: 289 total attempted registrants

2019: 183 total attempted registrants

2020: 387 total attempted registrants

2021: 33 total attempted registrants

2022: 5 total attempted registrants

Attempted Registrations Before Last Day to Register in Recent General Election Years

2012 (10/9): 52; 85% of total for the year

2014 (10/6): 121; 82.6% of total for the year

2016 (10/11): 273; 92.8% of total for the year

2018 (10/9): 265; 91.7% of total for the year

2020 (10/5): 276; 71.3% of total for the year

2020 (12/7; runoffs): 368; 91.1% of total for the year

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