ICYMI: RightCount Georgia Applauds Efforts to Keep Voter Rolls Accurate and Secure

AJC Op-ed by Fmr State Sen. Eric Johnson Highlights Success of Georgia’s Voter Roll Maintenance and ERIC’s Vital Role

At RightCount, we believe secure elections begin with accurate voter rolls. That’s why we promote smart, data-driven election integrity measures that protect both voter access and public trust. We’re proud to spotlight a new opinion piece from former Georgia State Senator and RightCount Georgia Chair Eric Johnson, which ran in the print edition of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution (April 4). The Georgia House let an elections overhaul bill die Friday night, failing to take a vote on proposals that would have withdrawn the state from a voter registration accuracy organization (ERIC) and banned absentee ballot drop-off the weekend before Election Day. The bill’s defeat marks the first year since 2020 that Georgia Republicans haven’t changed state election laws.

In the op-ed, Johnson commends Georgia’s recent efforts to remove outdated voter registrations, many of which belong to individuals who have moved out of state or otherwise become ineligible, as a smart, transparent step toward safeguarding the integrity of the state’s elections. He also offers a strong defense of Georgia’s participation in the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), which was instrumental in identifying over half of the records flagged for removal. Notable excerpts of Johnson’s op-ed are below.

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Electoral Integrity Requires Voter Roll Upkeep
Eric Johnson | April 4, 2025

“As a former Georgia state senator and chair of RightCount Georgia, I welcome the news that Georgia is set to remove a near U.S. record of voters who, by all accounts, are no longer present in Georgia or no longer wish to remain registered.”

ERIC, founded in 2012 and governed by its member states, enables states to securely share data to identify and remove duplicate, deceased, or ineligible voter records. As Johnson writes, it’s a key part of the solution—not the problem.

“State Elections Director Blake Evans emphasized that the scope of this year’s registration removal process demonstrates ERIC’s effectiveness… ‘ERIC is the best tool out there right now that gives us valuable information you can’t get anywhere else.’”

“Given that ERIC is responsible for almost half of the voter roll cleanup that the Secretary of State’s office is doing this year, [exiting ERIC] does not make any sense to me as someone who cares about clean and accurate voter rolls.”

In addition to voter list maintenance, Johnson highlighted the state’s successful 2024 election administration, including a comprehensive ballot image audit and a statewide risk-limiting audit (RLA)—both of which confirmed the accuracy of Georgia’s vote counts and the reliability of the technology used.

“Georgia’s electoral processes continue to consistently exemplify transparency, efficiency and accuracy.”

“The results [of the audit] confirmed 100 percent accuracy in the QR codes, affirming the reliability of our voting technology.”

While some critics raise concerns about disenfranchisement, Johnson emphasizes that Georgia’s process is designed to protect eligible voters while maintaining the integrity of the system.

“In the exceedingly rare circumstance in which a legal voter is impacted, they have ample opportunity to contact their local election official… or to reactivate their registration if they remain eligible.”

He closes with a clear reminder:

“The integrity of our elections is not a partisan issue but a fundamental pillar of our democracy… Georgia sets a standard for electoral excellence that other states would do well to emulate.”

RightCount applauds the work of election officials across Georgia to keep our voter rolls clean, accurate, and secure. We urge policymakers to stand by the proven tools—like ERIC—that make this essential work possible.

For more information on RightCount’s operations in Georgia visit www.rightcount.org/georgia.