{"id":2334489,"date":"2024-08-30T17:35:01","date_gmt":"2024-08-30T21:35:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/suit-fulton-county-violates-law-by-failing-to-maintain-voter-rolls\/"},"modified":"2024-08-30T17:41:28","modified_gmt":"2024-08-30T21:41:28","slug":"suit-fulton-county-violates-law-by-failing-to-maintain-voter-rolls","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/suit-fulton-county-violates-law-by-failing-to-maintain-voter-rolls\/","title":{"rendered":"Suit: Fulton County Violates Law By Failing To Maintain Voter Rolls"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fsuit-fulton-county-violates-law-by-failing-to-maintain-voter-rolls%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2334489&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>Fulton County, Georgia, is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/female-athletes-denounce-biden-executive-order-on-gender-identity\/\" title=\"Female athletes denounce Biden executive order on gender identity\">facing legal action<\/a> \u200cover allegations\u200b that it is not properly maintaining its voter rolls. A federal lawsuit was \u2063filed by \u200bresidents Jason Frazier and Earl Ferguson against Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger\u200d and the \u200dlocal \u200celection\u200c department. The plaintiffs argue that the county fails to \u2062ensure the accuracy of\u200b voter registration lists, a stance\u200d supported by testimonies indicating \u200cthat no independent checks are being\u200c conducted to identify\u200c ineligible voters, such as \u200cthe deceased or those living out of state.<\/p>\n<p>The \u2064lawsuit claims that Fulton County has \u200da legal\u200c obligation \u200cto \u2064keep its <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/new-mexico-sued-for-charging-5000-to-access-public-voter-data\/\" title=\"New Mexico Sued For Charging ,000 To Access Public Voter Data\">voter rolls accurate<\/a>, referencing Georgia state\u200b law and\u2062 the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA). Despite this, it \u2064is alleged that the\u200d County\u2019s Department \u200cof Registrations and Elections (FCDRE)\u2064 does\u2063 not proactively investigate\u2062 voter eligibility.<\/p>\n<p>Frazier has <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/white-house-dodges-knowledge-of-hunter-biden-antics-he-makes-his-own-decisions\/\" title=\"White House avoids acknowledging Hunter Biden&#039;s actions: &#039;He acts independently\">previously\u2064 raised concerns<\/a> about\u2062 inaccuracies in \u200bthe rolls, including \u200binstances of voters registered \u200dat commercial locations and\u200d deceased individuals. The lawsuit also challenges claims made by Raffensperger \u2062regarding the legality of removing ineligible \u2063voters close to federal elections, asserting\u200c that the NVRA \u2064does not impose such \u200drestrictions\u200d under \u200ccertain conditions.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately, the plaintiffs argue that the \u200bfailure \u200bto\u2063 maintain \u2063accurate\u2062 voter rolls undermines\u200d electoral integrity and violates state and \u200bfederal laws.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Fulton County, Georgia, is allegedly not maintaining its voter rolls, according to a recently filed in federal court.<\/p>\n<p>The suit, brought by Fulton County residents Jason Frazier and Earl Ferguson against Secretary of State Brad Raffensberger and members of the Fulton County Department of Registrations and Elections (FCDRE), alleges that &ldquo;Fulton County does not maintain, nor does it even attempt to maintain, accurate voter rolls.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>The suit cites, in part, testimony from Atlanta <a href=\"https:\/\/www.atlantaga.gov\/government\/departments\/law\/biography\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">city attorney<\/a> Patrise Perkins-Hooker who <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/JasonFrazierUSA\/status\/1724986726207181091\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said last<\/a> November that &ldquo;Fulton County never does an independent search for anybody; dead people, felons, people who live out of state.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Perkins-Hooker <a href=\"https:\/\/fulton.granicus.com\/player\/clip\/312?view_id=2&amp;redirect=true\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a> the Secretary of State&rsquo;s office sends Fulton County a list of potentially ineligible voters who are then notified by the county about such allegations.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;We don&rsquo;t have the right, to remove anybody&rsquo;s privilege to vote without a hearing,&rdquo; Perkins-Hooker said. &ldquo;We are not, on our own, initiating any investigation of our voting rolls to remove anybody.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>But the suit argues that <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/05\/09\/board-refuses-to-have-fulton-county-investigated-for-double-scanning-3000-ballots-in-2020-recount\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Fulton County<\/a> is obligated to maintain clean and accurate voting rolls, citing <a href=\"https:\/\/law.justia.com\/codes\/georgia\/title-21\/chapter-2\/article-6\/section-21-2-228\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">state<\/a> law which says &ldquo;the board of registrars of each county or municipality shall have the right and shall be charged with the duty of examining from time to time the qualifications of each elector &hellip; .&rdquo; The National Voter Registration Act (NVRA), <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/103rd-congress\/house-bill\/2\/text\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">also requires states<\/a> to &ldquo;conduct a general program that makes a reasonable effort to remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists of eligible voters.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Frazier, &ldquo;in light of FCDRE&rsquo;s open admission to not <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/georgia-plans-to-cut-100000-names-off-state-voter-rolls-in-major-list-maintenance-effort\/\" title=\"Georgia Plans To Cut 100,000 Names Off State Voter Rolls In \u2018Major List Maintenance Effort\u2019\">maintaining accurate voter rolls<\/a>,&rdquo; submitted a voter roll challenge on Aug. 4 &ldquo;to contest the continued inclusion of certain&nbsp;electors who are no longer eligible to vote in Fulton County,&rdquo; according to the suit. State <a href=\"https:\/\/law.justia.com\/codes\/georgia\/title-21\/chapter-2\/article-6\/section-21-2-229\/\">law<\/a> stipulates that Frazier should receive notice of a hearing within 10 business days of the complaint being received, the suit notes. But Frazier claims that, &ldquo;as of the date of [the suit] filing, the FCDRE continues to violate its obligation to respond.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Frazier <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/02\/23\/raffensperger-claims-georgias-voter-rolls-are-cleanest-in-the-country-heres-why-thats-bunk\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">has previously highlighted<\/a> alleged list maintenance issues, such as voters who are registered at commercial addresses or &ldquo;imaginary houses,&rdquo; along with dead people on the rolls.<\/p>\n<p>The suit also alleges that Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger &ldquo;has falsely advised and\/or instructed that federal law (NVRA) prohibits county election officials in Fulton County and throughout Georgia&rsquo;s remaining 158 other counties from removing voters within 90 days of a federal election if the ineligible voters identified by a 229(a) challenge were found to be ineligible based upon a challenger&rsquo;s use of a program.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;But this is not what the NVRA says&hellip; ,&rdquo; the suit contends.<\/p>\n<p>The NVRA <a href=\"https:\/\/www.congress.gov\/bill\/103rd-congress\/house-bill\/2\/text\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">says<\/a>&nbsp;that states &ldquo;shall complete, not later than 90 days prior to the date of a primary or general election for Federal office, any program the purpose of which is to systematically remove the names of ineligible voters from the official lists of eligible voters.&rdquo; But the suit contends that the federal statute regarding the challenging of ineligible voters via systematic list maintenance does not apply to 229(a) voter challenges, which permit anyone in the county (like Frazier) to challenge a voter&rsquo;s eligibility, &ldquo;even within the 90-day window,&rdquo; according to the suit.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;The NVRA provision that prohibits the FCDRE from using a Fulton County-operated program that has a purpose to &lsquo;systematically remove the names of ineligible voters&rsquo; from its voter rolls within the last 90 days before a federal election does not prohibit the FCDRE&nbsp; from removing ineligible voters identified by a voter challenge submitted by a Fulton County&nbsp;eligible elector,&rdquo; the suit claims.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;This misapplication of the NVRA&rsquo;s 90-day prohibition has resulted in the rejection and refusal to review or otherwise remove tens, if not hundreds of thousands of ineligible voters that remain on Fulton County&rsquo;s voter roll directly and proximately as a result of the FCDRE&rsquo;s violations of federal law &hellip; ,&rdquo; the suit alleges.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;[T]he FCDRE adopted this unlawful regulation and non-existent basis for the rejection of otherwise lawfully submitted challenges directly and proximately as a result of its communications with Secretary Raffensperger and the statements, conveyances, and representations, made by him and the Office of Secretary of State,&rdquo; the suit alleges.<\/p>\n<p>The suit seeks, in part, a &ldquo;Writ of Mandamus&rdquo; that would force the defendant parties to &ldquo;comply&rdquo; with what Frazier and Ferguson argue are their statutory &ldquo;obligations.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Neither Secretary of State Raffensperger nor Fulton County Department of Registration and Elections members Sherri Allen, Aaron Johnson, Michael Heekin, and Teresa K. Crawford did not return a request for comment before the time of publication.&nbsp;Kathryn Glenn, the registration manager of the FCDRE listed as another defendant in the suit, also did not return a request for comment. <\/p>\n<p>The suit states the defendants &ldquo;violated the express, non-discretionary duty imposed under the NVRA that requires Fulton County to&rdquo; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/lawsuit-forces-los-angeles-county-to-remove-1-2-million-ineligible-voters-from-rolls\/\" title=\"Lawsuit Forces Los Angeles County To Remove 1.2 Million Ineligible Voters From Rolls\">maintain accurate voter rolls<\/a>.<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Brianna Lyman is an elections correspondent at The Federalist. Brianna graduated from Fordham University with a degree in International Political Economy. Her work has been featured on Newsmax, Fox News, Fox Business and RealClearPolitics. Follow Brianna on X: @briannalyman2<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fulton County, Georgia, is reportedly failing to keep its voter rolls updated, as stated in a recent federal court filing. The lawsuit was initiated by Fulton County residents Jason Frazier and Earl Ferguson against Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger and officials from the Fulton County Department of Registrations and Elections (FCDRE). They claim that &#8220;Fulton County does not maintain, nor does it even attempt to maintain, accurate voter rolls.&#8221; The suit references testimony from Atlanta city attorney Patrise Perkins-Hooker, who indicated last November that &#8220;Fulton County never conducts an independent search for anyone; including deceased individuals, felons, or those residing out of state.&#8221; She noted that the Secretary of State&#8217;s office provides Fulton County with a list of potentially ineligible voters who are then contacted by the county regarding these claims. Perkins-Hooker emphasized that they do not have the authority to revoke anyone&#8217;s voting rights without a hearing and are not proactively investigating their voter rolls.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit argues that Fulton County has a legal obligation to keep accurate voting records based on state law which mandates that &#8220;the board of registrars of each county or municipality shall have the right and shall be charged with the duty of examining from time to time the qualifications of each elector&#8230;&#8221; Additionally, the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) requires states to &#8220;conduct a general program making reasonable efforts to remove ineligible voters from official lists.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In response to FCDRE\u2019s admission about its failure to maintain accurate voter rolls, Frazier filed a challenge on August 4 aimed at contesting certain electors&#8217; continued eligibility. According to state law, he should receive notice for a hearing within 10 business days after his complaint is filed; however, he asserts that as of filing this suit, FCDRE has failed to fulfill this obligation. He has previously raised concerns about issues such as voters registered at commercial addresses or fictitious locations and deceased individuals still listed.<\/p>\n<p>The lawsuit also claims Secretary Raffensperger has incorrectly advised county election officials across Georgia regarding federal law (NVRA), suggesting it prevents them from removing voters within 90 days before federal elections if those identified as ineligible were challenged through specific programs. However, according to the suit&#8217;s interpretation of NVRA provisions: states must complete any systematic removal programs for ineligible voters no later than 90 days before primary or general elections but can still address challenges made by eligible electors like Frazier during this period.<\/p>\n<p>The suit contends that misinterpretation regarding NVRA\u2019s 90-day rule has led FCDRE not only to reject numerous valid challenges but also resulted in maintaining tens or hundreds of thousands of ineligible voters on their rolls due directly and indirectly due to violations stemming from communications with Secretary Raffensperger\u2019s office.<\/p>\n<p>Ultimately seeking a \u201cWrit of Mandamus,\u201d which would compel compliance with what they argue are statutory obligations concerning voter roll maintenance. As for comments on these allegations prior publication time frame requests were unreturned by both Secretary Raffensperger and members associated with FCDRE including Sherri Allen among others mentioned as defendants. The lawsuit asserts these parties have breached their clear duties under NVRA requiring proper upkeep of accurate voter registrations<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":74,"featured_media":2334490,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/291848875_636e0011e1_o-1-e1725032264459.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[33739,32987,32142,32643,32570],"class_list":["post-2334489","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-election-law","tag-fulton-county","tag-legal-action","tag-voter-rolls","tag-voting-rights"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/08\/291848875_636e0011e1_o-1-e1725032264459.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2334489","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/74"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2334489"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2334489\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2334490"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2334489"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2334489"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2334489"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}