“When Georgia canceled over 534,000 voter registrations in 2017, Joyce Bailey of Snellville was among those swept up in the largest removal of inactive registrations in U.S. history. But Bailey, who works in a metro Atlanta school system, was able to restore her registration and vote in the 2020 presidential election. Bailey is one of nearly 44,000 voters who lost their registrations four years ago but re-registered and cast a ballot in November’s election, according to a comparison of cancellations lists and voter history data by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.”

“As Georgia election officials plan to cancel 102,000 registrations this summer, Bailey’s experience shows how registration cancellations, called voter ‘purges’ by their critics, take away the ability to vote but aren’t necessarily permanent. Eligible voters who realize they were canceled can re-register and vote. Those who don’t re-register would be left out of elections. ‘I wanted my voice to be heard and my vote to be counted. I thought it was time to get a new change,’ said Bailey, who previously hadn’t voted since 2008. ‘I did not vote for a while, so I did register.’ Voter registrations can be canceled in Georgia after voters move or don’t participate in elections for several years. Cancellations occur every other year as required by Georgia law to remove ineligible or infrequent voters, an effort to keep up-to-date voter lists. Some of those who re-registered after 2017, such as Bailey, were removed under Georgia’s ‘use it or lose it’ law. Under the law, voters are labeled ‘inactive’ if they fail to participate in elections for five years, then their registrations are voided if they miss the next two general elections” – Atlanta-Journal Constitution.