CNN: Thousands purged from voter rolls in Georgia RAW STORY

Published: Monday October 27, 2008





Print This Email This Update: Federal panel tells state to let those flagged vote anyway, ballots can later be challenged; GA sec. of state says screening to continue



With reports of voting problems rife in the media, and instances of vote flipping seen in West Virginia, Pennsylvania and Texas, elections watchdogs are on their toes for any more foul play.



In spite of their activism, thousands of voters have been lopped off Georgia's rolls.



CNN's Abbie Boudreau and Scott Bronstein reported:



College senior Kyla Berry was looking forward to voting in her first presidential election, even carrying her voter registration card in her wallet.



But about two weeks ago, Berry got disturbing news from local election officials.



"This office has received notification from the state of Georgia indicating that you are not a citizen of the United States and therefore, not eligible to vote," a letter from the Fulton County Department of Registration and Elections said.



But Berry is a U.S. citizen, born in Boston, Massachusetts. She has a passport and a birth certificate to prove it.



Berry is one of thousands of registered Georgia voters who have been "flagged" because of a computer mismatch in their personal identification information. At least 4,500 of those people are having their citizenship questioned and the burden is on them to prove eligibility to vote.



Experts say lists of people with mismatches are often systematically cut, or "purged," from voter rolls.



UPDATE: The Associated Press reported that federal judges have ordered Georgia to stop using Social Security Numbers and driver license numbers to verify voters' immigration status and admonished the state over its handling of voter "flagging."



This video is from CNN.com, broadcast October 27, 2008.









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