The state’s efforts to keep voter files ‘up to date’ follows Republican legislatures’ attempts to push voting restriction laws since the 2020 election

The effort to remove 101,789 names from Georgia’s voter files marks the first time the state has conducted a “major cleaning” since 2019, but Georgia regularly removes the voter files of convicted felons and the dead on a monthly basis, according to the statement.

“The 101,789 obsolete voter files that will be removed include 67,286 voter files associated with a National Change of Address form submitted to the U.S. Postal Service; 34,227 voter files that had election mail returned to sender; and 276 that had no-contact with elections officials for at least five years,” the statement said. “In each of these cases, the individual had no contact with Georgia’s elections officials in any way – either directly or through the Department of Driver Services – for two general elections.”

The full list of “obsolete and outdated” names that are being removed was published publicly with the statement.

In addition to the “obsolete and outdated” files, Georgia also removed “18,486 voter files of dead individuals based on information received from Georgia’s Office of Vital Records and the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), an interstate partnership of 30 states and the District of Columbia focused on maintaining accurate voter rolls,” the statement says.

In his statement, Raffensperger took a swipe at voting rights advocate Stacey Abrams, the 2018 Democratic gubernatorial nominee.

“That is why I fought and beat Stacey Abrams in court in 2019 to remove nearly 300,000 obsolete voter files before the November election, and will do so again this year,” Raffensperger said.

Georgia emerged as a major battleground state this past election and was home to two pivotal races that determined the balance of the US Senate.

This story has been updated with additional details and context.