Citing 'use it or lose it' law, judge rules Georgia doesn't need to restore 98,000 voters

"I voted" sticker.
(Image credit: ROBYN BECK/AFP via Getty Images)

U.S. District Judge Steve Jones on Friday denied efforts to restore about 98,000 Georgia voters who were taken off the state's voter rolls earlier this month because they had not participated in elections for more than eight years.

Jones upheld the cancellations under Georgia's "use it or lose it" law which allows state officials to remove inactive registered voters. The plaintiffs, Jones wrote in his 32-page decision, did not show how the cancellations violated the U.S. Constitution, but he added they could still ask the Georgia Supreme Court to interpret the state's law about inactive voters. The plaintiffs, led by voting rights group Fair Fight Action, appear ready to do just that, per The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

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Tim O'Donnell

Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.