Another power grab: Georgia purges 471K voters

For years, I have been warning about the fragility of voting rights.

Now, I’m sounding the alarm. 

America is in the grips of an authoritarian takeover. Don’t take my word for it. Historians and political scientists have mapped out the 10 signs — from expanded executive power and weakened checks and balances to mass firings of public servants and censorship of the media. 

Step 10 is the end of free and fair elections, and proof of that happening can be found right here in Georgia.

We take democracy for granted, assuming that the fights are about election results or which party is in power. But that has always been a distraction. Democracy doesn’t die in grand events. It erodes through regulatory changes to who can vote, altered rules that make it harder to cast a ballot and “routine maintenance” that quietly narrows who counts.

Georgia’s cancellation of nearly 471,000 voter registrations is a case study. On paper, it was merely housekeeping. In practice, the secretary of state targeted the very people whose participation has expanded our nation’s pluralistic democracy — and his actions landed alongside the national rise of authoritarian power.

Seen through the “10 Steps to Autocracy and Authoritarianism” framework, the pattern that has unfolded is unmistakable. Autocrats expand executive power, weaken oversight, flood the zone with disinformation, scapegoat vulnerable communities and — most dangerously — break elections so the people no longer have a real choice. Purging hundreds of thousands of voters was not a simple clerical task. It was part of the steps designed to tilt the playing field for years to come.

Voter purges work by labeling registrations “inactive,” sending confusing mail and canceling voters who don’t respond in time. It hits the most mobile and marginalized — renters, young people, people of color, military families — disproportionately. The burden shifts from the state to the citizen: prove you still exist at the right address on the right timetable or lose your voice. Multiply that across city councils, county commissions, school boards and legislatures, and the scale of disenfranchisement becomes clear.

Georgia has been here before. State leaders have long practiced aggressive purges, restrictive ID laws, polling place closures and rules targeting absentee ballots, accelerated by the evisceration of the landmark 1965 Voting Rights Act. Each move chips away at access, and the effect is always the same: fewer voices in the electorate. 

But Georgia’s actions cannot be viewed in isolation. They join forces with the mid-decade redistricting in Texas — that reduces Latino voting strength to one-third of the political power of a white resident and shrinks the impact of Black residents to one-fifth — and the new maps in Missouri that carve up black neighborhoods to dilute voting power. Efforts in California to nullify these maps to keep the balance the same may or may not succeed in November, but I applaud the effort.

However, Georgia has also been on the right side of history in defending democracy. Time and again, Georgians have insisted on better. From the civil rights movement to more recent organizing that expanded access and mobilized record numbers of voters on both sides of the aisle, communities here have fought to ensure their voices are heard. Our history matters because it reminds us that voter suppression is not destiny. Insistence and persistence have reshaped Georgia before, and they can again.

No one of sound mind disputes that voter rolls should be accurate. The issue is how. When accuracy is the goal, the rules should be voter-centered and should take exceptional pains to preserve access. When power is the goal, leaders disproportionately target vulnerable populations, use questionable data sources and shift the burden to the voter. Georgia’s mass cancellation lands squarely in the latter camp.

So, what do we do? First, name it. This wasn’t just paperwork. It was a structural tactic to shrink who counts. Second, explain who was hard-hit. Third, make it local — these purges won’t just affect Congress; they will reshape decisions about schools, hospitals and state budgets. Finally, pick one action and do it weekly. Call your legislators, press for safeguards, and support the organizers fixing records and knocking doors. Check out 10stepscampaign.org for resources and more ideas.

The fight to preserve democracy begins in places like Georgia, where we have learned hard lessons. Authoritarianism comes for our neighbors first, but eventually, we are all the victims.

The answer is not despair; it’s disciplined action. Democracy is won or lost in the details. That’s where this fight is, and it’s one we must win.

Stacey Abrams is a bestselling author, entrepreneur and host of the podcast “Assembly Required.” She previously served as minority leader in the Georgia House of Representatives.

Editor’s Note: On Nov. 4, California voters approved Gov. Gavin Newsom’s measure allowing the state to redraw its congressional map.