In a significant move, Columbia County in Georgia has become the first location in the United States to adopt the controversial EagleAI program to identify ineligible individuals on its voter rolls. The software, connected to a prominent election denier and key figure in Donald Trump's post-2020 election efforts, aims to match voting data with publicly available information such as post office and death records to flag individuals who should no longer be on the rolls.
While the county's specific plans for utilizing the EagleAI database remain unclear, Larry Wiggins, a Democratic member of the Columbia County board, suggests that it will aid officials in dealing with upcoming challenges. However, civil rights and voting groups have expressed concerns about the program's reliability, warning that it could lead to wrongful challenges against eligible voters.
The Brennan Center for Justice and six other voting rights organizations have criticized EagleAI, highlighting its reliance on public information scraped from sources like the National Change of Address database, criminal justice records, and property tax records. They argue that these sources may not be sufficient to accurately determine an individual's eligibility to vote at their registered location.
Even Georgia's elections director, Blake Evans, has criticized the program, stating that EagleAI presentations appear confused and may steer counties towards improper list maintenance activities. Evans also mentioned that the program draws inaccurate conclusions and presents them as evidence of wrongdoing.
On the other hand, John Richards Jr, a retired doctor in Columbia County and the developer of EagleAI, dismisses these concerns. He emphasizes that EagleAI NETwork™ gathers data from highly reliable sources, enhancing efficiency and accuracy for legally required voter list maintenance.
The EagleAI program has notable connections to Cleta Mitchell, a conservative lawyer who assisted Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the election. Despite a special purpose grand jury in Fulton County recommending criminal charges against Mitchell for her involvement, the district attorney decided not to pursue them.
Activists are now advocating for the expansion of the EagleAI program to other states, including Florida, Illinois, Iowa, Nevada, North Carolina, and Texas. This push comes as several Republican-led states withdraw from the Electronic Registration Information Center (ERIC), a consortium known for identifying ineligible voters on the rolls. Georgia, however, remains part of ERIC, with Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger defending it as the only large-scale list maintenance tool available.
As the EagleAI program takes center stage in Georgia's voter roll review, the broader implications and concerns regarding the reliability of such systems persist, raising questions about their potential impact on the democratic process.
