The Republican-controlled Georgia Senate voted along party lines Monday to urge Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger to turn over the state’s unredacted voter list — which includes 8 million voters’ personal information — to the Trump administration.
The vote came five days after the FBI seized ballots from the 2020 presidential election in Fulton County, which Democrats called another example of federal interference.
Raffensperger, a Republican running for governor, and Democrats opposed the nonbinding resolution, saying state law protects voters’ Social Security numbers, driver’s license numbers and full birth dates from disclosure.
The resolution is a symbolic show of support for the U.S. Department of Justice’s nationwide effort to collect voter lists, saying it wants to ensure accurate registration information.
“If we have only valid voters in our system, then what’s there to hide?” said state Sen. Ed Setzler, R-Acworth. “We should share our voter list with valid government entities to make sure there’s nothing wrong with the data.”
Democrats said the resolution undermines public trust in elections ahead of this year’s midterms, blaming President Donald Trump and his Republican supporters in the Senate.
“Here’s the setup to start interfering with Georgia elections,” said state Sen. Nikki Merritt, D-Grayson. “He can’t accept losing 2020 like he did. He can’t accept the loss. And now we keep relitigating it, and voters are paying attention.”
Prior to the Senate resolution, the Department of Justice sued Georgia for the statewide voter list last month.
Raffensperger’s office previously provided the DOJ with a public version of Georgia’s voter list that redacted voters’ personal information.
Raffensperger is a candidate for governor in the Republican primary in May against Attorney General Chris Carr and Lt. Gov. Burt Jones, who is supported by most Republican state senators.
Senate Resolution 563 passed on a 31-22 vote after over two hours of debate.
