Georgia increases interstate cooperation to maintain voter rolls

Georgia has recently completed election registration cooperation agreements with Alabama, Virginia, Florida, and South Carolina. 

Through Georgia’s membership in the Electronic Registration Information Center, or ERIC, Georgia receives notifications when Georgia voters move into 24 other states and the District of Columbia. This number includes South Carolina, which is also a member of the Electronic Registration Information Center program. 

With the addition of cooperation agreements with non-ERIC member states Alabama, Virginia and Florida, Georgia can now monitor interstate movement with a total of 27 other states plus D.C.

Multi-state agreements will allow states greater access and cooperation in ensuring that voter rolls are properly maintained, stated Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, adding that this effort is part of a larger initiative to develop best practices and increase interstate cooperation in preparation for the 2024 Presidential election. 

Raffensperger said, “Putting these agreements in place is crucial to maintaining the most accurate voter rolls in the nation. We’re working with other Secretaries of State and Chief Election Officials to ensure that Georgia can identify which voters have moved out of state, which voters have registered in different states, and which of our voter registration records may need to be updated. This gives Georgia the best view into current voter status….” 

In addition to the interstate cooperative efforts, earlier this year, Raffensperger released his Four Point Plan for Election Security in the 2024 election to “secure risks and hold every level of the election process accountable to Georgia’s voters.”

The four-step “Secure the Vote” includes: 

Testing before the election, termed Logic and Accuracy Testing, in which each piece of voting equipment in all 159 counties is tested to assure each contest is voting properly, by testing every candidate and ballot position on the Ballot Marking Devices, and that all scanners are reading ballots properly.

Testing during the election, called Parallel Monitoring, which mandates that live election equipment will be randomly selected and securely transferred for test voting in 3 regions of the state every day of voting from the start of early voting through Election Day. This testing will detect any active, ongoing threat.

Voter review and accountability is the third arm of the four-point plan, and Raffensperger points out that, since 2020, Georgia voters have had the ability to review their own ballot for accuracy before turning it in for tabulation. In 2020, the University of Georgia conducted a study of Georgia’s live elections and found that more than 80% of Georgia’s voters reviewed their ballots.  

However, opponents to the voting system currently in place argue that reviewing paper ballot on which their vote is recorded is meaningless, since that paper ballot is then scanned and converted into a bar code that is used in actual vote tabulations – and voters have no way of confirming for themselves whether the bar code accurately represents the votes recorded on their paper ballot. 

Testing after the election, also called Risk Limiting Audits, encompasses the post-election audit procedures put in place with the passage of House Bill 316 and Senate Bill 129 which are meant to detect any anomalies in election outcomes. 

Raffensperger has stated that he has also partnered with the Department of Homeland Security and others to review the physical security of every location where voting equipment is stored.