A number of the applicants were signed up by the New Georgia Project, a voter-drive group that Ms. Abrams founded to boost minority participation in the electoral process. Mr. Kemp has blamed the group for turning in sloppy paper applications.

Some observers said they are worried that the “pending” status of these voters will lead to confusion when they go to the polls. In Friday’s ruling, United States District Judge Eleanor L. Ross said that Mr. Oren, after learning he was on the pending list, went through “a burdensome process requiring two trips to the polls, his own research and his hunting down a name and telephone number to give to election officials so that his citizenship status could be verified, all after he had already submitted proof of citizenship with his voter application.” ’

Mr. Oren’s ability to vote was held up by Fulton County poll workers who struggled to reach someone who could change his status from pending to active when he showed up with his proof of citizenship. The judge’s order on Friday broadened the list of poll workers authorized to verify citizenship documents, and directed Mr. Kemp’s office to issue a news release and update its website to clarify how such residents may vote.

Purging inactive voters

According to the Brennan Center for Justice at New York University, Georgia, under Mr. Kemp, purged 1.5 million voters from its rolls between 2012 and 2016. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that an additional 665,000 Georgia voters were purged last year.

The state is one of a handful that removes voters from the rolls after they are deemed “inactive.” Such removals were upheld in June by the United States Supreme Court in a 5-4 decision that considered a similar program in Ohio.

Supporters of the purges say their intent, much like the “exact match” law, is to prevent fraud. But the policies remain highly controversial.