MACON, Ga. — Are you registered to vote? Have you voted within the last two election cycles? If you haven’t, you could be removed from the statewide voter registration list.
Georgia’s Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger has already removed over 3,000 inactive voters and plans to remove a total of 190,000 inactive voters before the 2024 state and presidential elections.
Now, Macon-Bibb's Board of Elections and NAACP are collaborating with other organizations to help those who have been purged from the list.
“We’re here to make sure that we get the community educated on what they need to do,” Gwenette Westbrooks, president of the Macon-Bibb NAACP branch, said. “We’re going to be identifying the people that have actually been purged and we’re going to be setting up across the community."
They gathered at the new Board of Elections location inside the Macon Mall to discuss strategies, how to educate the community and how to take action.
“We just want people to make sure that they check their mail on a regular basis to make sure whether or not they receive the envelope about being purged," Westbrooks said. "They need to act accordingly because they only have 30 days to react from the date that’s on that letter."
Bibb County Board of Elections Supervisor Tom Gillon explained how they determine which voters they remove from the roll.
“Anyone who has not voted in several years, first they get moved to an inactive list and you can still vote as an inactive voter," Gillon said. "As soon as you do vote, that’ll move you back to active status."
But if you miss too many elections, you risk getting purged from the voter roll.
"If you're an inactive voter and you still miss 2 general elections, then that starts the process for the state to try to get in touch with you and they’ll send out mailings and so forth to find out where you are," Gillon said. "If we get no contact back from them, then the state will remove you from the list.“
The NAACP is urging people to check the state's list online, and they said they'll help explain how people can challenge the removal of voters.
County Commissioner Elaine Lucas says it's important because the next election year will be a busy one.
"It’s so many important issues to be voted on by these different people at all levels: local, statewide and nationally," Lucas said. "People don’t need to sit around and complain, they need to protect their vote by being a registered voter and voting in every election.”
Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger last month said his office is only removing names of people who've died, moved or failed to vote in recent elections.
You can check your status on the Secretary of State's MyVoter page.