Election review finds over 1,600 noncitizens tried to register to vote in Georgia
ATLANTA - More than 1,600 noncitizens attempted to register to vote in Georgia in recent years, a new review released by the Secretary of State's office finds.
According to the results of an audit released Monday, officials say the Peach State's first-ever citizenship review of its voter polls found 1,634 people who tried to register to vote were not able to be verified by the U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services’s Systematic Alien Verification for Entitlements program.
All the noncitizens were found though Georgia's citizenship check procedures before their registration and were not able to vote. Instead, officials say they were placed into "pending citizenship" status.
"Ensuring that only citizens are voting in Georgia’s elections is key to upholding the integrity of the vote in Georgia," Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said in a statement. "As liberal states and cities around the country are changing their laws to allow noncitizen voting, I will continue to take steps to ensure Georgia’s elections are executed with integrity. Leading the state’s first citizenship audit of the voter rolls is an important part of that effort."
In total, over 2,200 voter registration applications are currently in the "pending citizenship" status with the difference between that and the number of noncitizens being due to a lack of information required to use the verification tool.
Raffensperger has previously announced his support for an amendment to the state's constitution to bar noncitizen voting. The proposed amendment fell short of the two-thirds majority of 38 needed in the Georgia Senate for a constitutional amendment on a party line vote in January, with Democrats opposing the measure and Republicans supporting it.
Officials say none of the individuals flagged as noncitizens were able to cast a ballot in recent Georgia elections.
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