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Complaints Against Widespread Voter-Registration Challenges Based on Possibly Inaccurate Change-of-Address Records

Robert Timothy Reagan
October 30, 2023

Majority Forward v. Ben Hill County Board of Elections (Leslie A. Gardner, M.D. Ga. 1:20-cv-266) and Fair Fight v. True the Vote (Steve C. Jones, N.D. Ga. 2:20-cv-302)
Two federal complaints filed in December 2020, less than two weeks before a senatorial runoff election in Georgia, alleged that an organization was improperly challenging voter registrations based on unreliable change-of-address records. One week after the complaints were filed, a district judge in the Middle District of Georgia curtailed one county’s canceling voter registrations based on the change-of-address records alone. On the following day, a district judge in the Northern District of Georgia declined to impose immediate relief on the organization, but the case remained pending through 2023.
Subject: Nullifying registrations. Topics: Registration challenges; National Voter Registration Act; recusal; provisional ballots; Covid-19; case assignment.

One of many Case Studies in Emergency Election Litigation.

Update: Fair Fight Inc. v. True the Vote, 710 F. Supp. 3d 1237 (N.D. Ga. 2024) (opinion filed at N.D. Ga. No. 2:20-cv-302, D.E. 335) (granting judgment to the defendants following a bench trial), appeal pending, No. 24-10372 (11th Cir. docketed Feb. 2, 2024); Fee Award, Fair Fight Inc. v. True the Vote, No. 2:20-cv-302 (N.D. Ga. Feb. 22, 2024), D.E. 348 ($15,000 discovery sanction awarded to plaintiffs).