Voting rights groups sue Georgia for refusing to release voter purge records

Pro-voting groups sued Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger (R) for refusing to turn over key records related to his office’s sweeping 2025 voter roll purge — a purge that canceled nearly 471,000 registrations, about 6% of the state’s voters.

Black Voters Matter Fund and two Georgia union organizations* filed a federal lawsuit Friday arguing that Raffensperger violated the National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) — a landmark law designed to protect voters — by failing to fully comply with its public records requirements after conducting what he called a sweeping “audit” of Georgia’s voter rolls.

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The lawsuit centers on what happened in the summer of 2025, when Raffensperger publicly announced a large-scale effort to “clean” the state’s voter rolls and began the process that ultimately led to hundreds of thousands of registration cancellations.

“Secretary Raffensperger’s mass voter purge last summer prompted Plaintiffs’ requests,” the groups wrote in their complaint. “Specifically, in July 2025, Secretary Raffensperger issued a press release announcing that his office was conducting an ‘audit of Georgia’s voter rolls’ to ‘clean Georgia’s voter lists.’”

What followed was one of the largest voter roll removals in recent Georgia history.

“The press release boasted that this was ‘the largest mailing of its kind in eight years,’” the complaint reads. “And the Secretary subsequently cancelled the registrations of nearly 471,000 Georgia voters — roughly six percent of all registered voters in the state.”

Under Georgia’s process, voters who received cancellation notices had 40 days to respond before being removed. The plaintiffs say that scale alone demanded transparency.

“These uncertainties prompted significant public concern about the intent and effect of Georgia’s mass voter purge,” the complaint adds. “These included concerns about whether the purge would result in the improper removal of eligible voters — particularly minority voters and voters who move frequently.”

The NVRA requires states to make available for public inspection “all records” related to voter list maintenance — the process of updating and cleaning voter rolls. The groups requested documents explaining how voters were identified, what notices were sent, whether voters responded and what methodology was used.

According to the complaint, Raffensperger’s office responded with only a limited spreadsheet listing voters’ county, ID number, a brief “inactive” category and whether their registration was canceled.

The lawsuit argues that response fell far short of the federal law’s transparency requirements.

“A state may not remove voters from the rolls without first complying with prescribed procedures meant to protect qualified voters’ access to the franchise and minimize the risk of erroneous cancellations,” the plaintiffs argued.

The plaintiffs say that without full access to the records, they cannot determine whether eligible voters — particularly in Black communities and among union members — were wrongly removed.

The groups are asking the court to declare that Raffensperger violated the NVRA and to order his office to turn over the full set of requested records.

Georgia has a long history of controversial voter roll purges. In 2019, the state removed more than 300,000 voters under its “use it or lose it” policy. In 2020, an investigation by the ACLU found that nearly 200,000 voters may have been removed based on flawed address data.

Research has consistently shown that large-scale purges risk sweeping up eligible voters — especially young voters, Black voters and people who move frequently, including students and renters.

*The plaintiffs in the case are represented by the Elias Law Group (ELG). ELG firm chair Marc Elias is the founder of Democracy Docket.