ATLANTA — A new voter registration cancellation website went live in Georgia on Monday that Sec. Of State Brad Raffensperger said would be a "convenient tool" for keeping "Georgia's voter registration database up-to-date" as many Democrats raised objections and argued the system is too easy to manipulate.
The site, "GA Voter Registration Cancellation Portal," requires a voter's first initial, last name, the county in which they're registered to vote and a date of birth to access initially.
From there, according to a release Monday from Sec. Raffensperger, someone must "enter their secret personal identifying information (such as Drivers License/State ID # or Full/Partial SSN)" to notify their county registration officials they want to be removed from the rolls.
At that point the local officials would be notified by the state's GARVIS system (Georgia Registered Voter Information System) and they would cancel the voter's registration.
The release also noted that Raffensperger's office will be directing closing attorneys and realtors to the new website "so that cancelling an out-of-date voter registration will be a part of the moving process."
Those who visit the website are told to use the portal if:
- You no longer wish to be registered to vote in the State of Georgia
- You have moved out of state
- You are related to a voter who is deceased
An additional note says that, "If you are reporting the death of a loved one, please enter the information of the voter you are requesting to cancel."
Georgia Senate Minority Leader Gloria Butler said in a statement posted Monday that the Senate Democratic Caucus had first identified a "massive security flaw" with the portal that was resolved by the Secretary of State's Office.
She further said that the Secretary of State's Office however "has not resolved the ability of hostile actors and conspiracy theorists to mess with our elections using this website."
11Alive reached out to the Secretary of State's Office for further information about the security flaw Butler said was found, and whether there are any safeguards against someone canceling another voter's registration by having the necessary identifying details.
The Secretary of State's Office responded, highlighting security tools it said would make the system resistant to misuse by bots or "other inorganic activity." It added that the portal creates a trail for identifying "any malicious individuals who would attempt to use the portal to cancel voter registrations without the voters' knowledge."
The statement said in full:
The Voter Cancellation Request portal is the most secure method for voters to cancel their voter registration. Voters no longer have to submit personally identifiable information (PII) through an unencrypted email or through the US Postal Service. This is a convenience to Georgia voters who are in the process of moving out of state, secured by several layers of security tools, including recaptcha, to detect and block bots or other inorganic activity. The portal requires more data points to cancel a registration than the traditional method of mailing in a signed note with PII readily available. Using the same FEDRAMP Compliant GovCloud technology that supports OLVR, Absentee Ballot Requests Portal, and the My Voter Page, the cancellation request portal also creates an auditable trail to identify any malicious individuals who would attempt to use the portal to cancel voter registrations without the voters’ knowledge.
"In a democracy that values the right to vote, it is astonishing to see the extent to which some will go to disenfranchise citizens. Why is the @GaSecofState making it easier for citizens to challenge the voting rights of others? #gapol" Georgia NAACP President Gerald Griggs posted on X.
Griggs, an attorney, indicated in a reply on X that using the system to cancel someone else's registration would violate Georgia computer crimes and forgery codes.
The Georgia Senate Democrats X account on Monday posted, "We demand this be taken down immediately."
A statement by Sec. Raffensperger framed the site as a more efficient way of conducting processes that are already done by the state.
“This is a convenient tool for any voter who wants to secure their voter registration by cancelling their old one when they move out of state,” Sec. Raffensperger said. “It will also help keep Georgia’s voter registration database up-to-date without having to rely on postcards being sent and returned by an increasingly inefficient postal system.”
He added: "“We do voter list maintenance in Georgia every day. This is one more method that’s convenient for voters and efficient for election officials.”
