Thousands of people purged from Georgia’s voter rolls reregistered after Kamala Harris’ rally in Atlanta

Stanlecia Johnson, 48, registered to vote when she turned 18 years old, but almost immediately lost the right when she was convicted of a felony around the same time.

She did not vote for 30 years. But after registering again last month, Johnson plans to vote in Fulton County in November.

Johnson is one of over 40,000 voters who have reregistered this year ahead of Georgia’s Oct. 7 deadline. Most of them last updated their registration after Vice President Kamala Harris joined the race, with roughly 25% doing so on the day of her July rally in Atlanta, according to an Atlanta Journal-Constitution analysis of the state’s voter roll.

“She seems like a strong woman,” Johnson said. “It seems like she’s for the people, for my people, regular people.”

The Georgia secretary of state removed thousands of voter registrations before the beginning of the year for varying reasons — some were removed for not voting or responding to mail from election officials in two general election cycles, others were deleted following a conviction with a felony sentence, and still others for moving to another state.

Now, many of these voters are eligible again and back on Georgia’s voter roll.

In the same period of time, the state has removed more than 100,000 names from Georgia’s list of eligible voters. Death and duplicate entries are the two main reasons for removal so far this year.

“This maintenance isn’t evil,” said Mitchell Brown, a political scientist at Auburn University. “It’s good administrative practice.”

Brown said the timing of the updated registrations could reflect increased interest in Harris as a candidate or coincide with more outreach to voters around that time.

Lauren Groh-Wargo, CEO of voting rights organization Fair Fight Action, interpreted the reregistrations as a sign that there is strong enthusiasm to vote this year, especially among the 60% of reregistrants who had been inactive in Georgia’s elections for several years.

“These folks were registered before. They didn’t vote for a set of years,” she said. “They decided to vote again, but they had to take that additional step and burden of reregistering.”

This burden of reregistering is made easier by voter outreach by organizations like Women on the Rise, which is dedicated to empowering formerly incarcerated women. They reached out to Johnson and informed her of her right to vote.

Greater Georgia, a Republican-led effort, said that it reaches out to voters who have not participated in elections for a long time. These voters might include those who were removed from the rolls for inactivity.

“It’s not just first-time voters who are getting involved this cycle,” said Caitlin O’Dea, spokesperson for Greater Georgia in a statement. “After making over 100,000 phone calls, we’ve helped reregister many Georgians who haven’t voted in decades.”

A voter’s registration can be updated when moving counties, getting married and changing last names, or renewing a driver’s license. Some voters listed as updating their registration in July may have reregistered earlier in the year, and then made one of these smaller changes later on.

That was the case for Alan Overton. The 58-year-old had lived in Georgia before and reregistered after moving back to the state from Florida in January. When he settled in and relocated to Cobb County over the summer, he updated his registration again.

Overton said he has been voting for 30 years and that his primary motivation is to stop former President Donald Trump from regaining power. He also said that Harris represents an opportunity for change.

“A return to intelligence, a return to logic, a return to responsibility to your neighbors, a return to inclusiveness,” he said. “All these things that we just sort of took for granted when I was growing up.”