Big Georgia county to start charging some costs to people who challenge the eligibility of voters

ATLANTA (AP) — An election board in one of Georgia’s largest counties has voted to start charging people who challenge the eligibility of voters for the cost of notifying the challenged voters.

The Cobb County Board of Elections and Registrations voted 4-1 on Tuesday to adopt the rule. Debbie Fisher, a Republican member of the board, was the only vote against the rule.

Republican activists are challenging thousands of voters in Georgia as part a wide-ranging national effort coordinated by Donald Trump’s allies to take names off voting rolls. Most of the people they are targeting have moved away from their old address, and the activists argue that letting those names stay on the rolls invites fraud. But Democrats and liberal voting rights activists argue Republicans are challenging voters either to remove Democrats or to sow doubt about the accuracy of elections in advance of 2024 presidential voting.

Democrats have been pushing to start charging for each challenge filed, in part as an effort to deter people from targeting hundred or thousands of voters using software programs such as EagleAI or IV3 that facilitate mass challenges. A 2021 Georgia law specifically says one person can challenge an unlimited number of voters in their own county.

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