Congress Should Look to Georgia for Tips on Cleaning the Voter Rolls
Members of Congress are home in their districts for the month of August following an action-packed first half of 2025. On the election policy front, the early days of the second Trump administration included debates over legislation that would require documentary proof of citizenship as well as a wide-ranging (though now mostly on hold) executive order impacting many aspects of American elections. Meanwhile, one of the last pieces of business in the House of Representatives before adjourning for the summer was a Committee on House Administration hearing on how to improve voter list-maintenance practices. Lawmakers are right to focus on this topic, as maintaining accurate voter lists is an essential ingredient for trustworthy elections. States like Georgia are especially well suited to provide insights and recommendations on how to do this effectively.
Voter list maintenance refers to the process state and local governments follow to ensure that voter registration lists accurately reflect the current population of registered voters in a jurisdiction. This process includes regularly reviewing and updating voter rolls to reflect changes like a new home address and canceling registrations for voters who die, move to a different state, or otherwise become ineligible to vote. Election officials rely on a variety of state and federal data sources to do this work, such as the Social Security Administration (SSA) Death Master File and the United States Postal Service (USPS) national Change of Address database.
List maintenance is primarily a state and local responsibility, but there are federal requirements outlined in 1993’s National Voter Registration Act (NVRA) as well as 2002’s Help America Vote Act. Two key provisions that compel states to act include requirements that they make a “reasonable effort” to remove ineligible voters and that those efforts occur on a “regular basis.” At the same time, federal law outlines eligible reasons for removing a voter, such as a move outside the jurisdiction or a criminal conviction. Amid the wide-ranging approaches taken by states to satisfy those federal requirements, Georgia’s emerges as a leading model that can inform debates over list-maintenance policies in Washington, D.C. and across the country.
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger provided an overview of his state’s approach in a letter sent to the House Committee on Administration prior to its July 22 hearing. Most importantly, he noted that Georgia makes use of the multitude of federal and state databases available from agencies like USPS, the Department of Homeland Security, and the SSA. Georgia also participates in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), which facilitates information sharing among 25 member states. This powerful tool helps election workers reduce the chances that the millions of Americans who move across state lines each year will end up improperly registered in two different states. Thanks in large part to these combined efforts, Georgia sent out cancellation mailers in early July to 477,000 inactive voters who will be removed from the list unless they reply.
Despite these successes in Georgia, the 30-year-old NVRA—which governs voter list maintenance nationwide—is due for updates. In particular, Raffensperger pointed to two specific provisions that could improve the process. First, the NVRA prohibits systematic removals within 90 days of a federal election, significantly reducing the amount of time available to conduct list-maintenance activities, as the so-called “quiet period” applies to both primary and general elections. In addition, updating the law to allow for digital verification of a voter’s relocation would streamline the process for removing voters who have moved across state lines and bring that portion of the federal list-maintenance law from the early 1990s into the modern era.
Overall, Georgia demonstrates by example the steps other states can take under current federal rules to strengthen voter list-maintenance practices as well as targeted improvements to federal law that would increase the efficiency and accuracy of the process. As lawmakers enjoy their summer vacation, they should consider these important lessons from the Peach State when they return to work in the fall and seek to improve trust in American elections.