DOWNERS GROVE, IL — The growing voter transparency website, VoteRef.com, run by the Voter Reference Foundation (VRF), is adding Georgia to its online voter registration database starting this week.

The database now contains six states – Nevada, Pennsylvania, North Carolina, Virginia, Ohio, and Georgia. Eventually the project will grow to include every voter from every state with the goal moving forward of keeping them up to date and accurate.

By posting the database and keeping it current, it should serve as a deterrent against fraud and an additional tool to give voters confidence in our elections.

For example, VRF has gathered the voter rolls from official state and local sources to ensure the most accurate information. This has revealed discrepancies between the number of voters listed as casting ballots in 2020 and the number of voters reported by a state’s official canvass and turnout reports. Such a discrepancy at the very least indicates an issue with record keeping and points to the need to be more transparent and proactive about maintaining the voter rolls.

In the states uploaded so far, this discrepancy has ranged from as low as 42 votes in North Carolina to tens of thousands of votes elsewhere.

In Georgia, the discrepancy is 3,742.

Additionally, the database allows for the crowdsourcing accuracy within the voter list. Residents are encouraged to check their own voter information and their families to see if there are discrepancies between the reality of a registered voter household and what is included in the registered voter database. People can also check to see if family members who have moved or died are listed as having voted.

Executive Director Gina Swoboda says this first-of-its-kind tool will play a significant role in the integrity of our elections moving forward.

“No organization has attempted to gather the nationwide voter file, and then to keep it up to date as a tool of transparency in elections,” Swoboda said. “This is a leap forward in technology and tools for voters to keep an eye on elections, ask questions, and encourage electoral integrity.”

Swoboda says that the process so far has been meticulous. “This is being built as a forward-looking tool to ensure transparency and make sure voters can trust in the lists that are the very foundation of our election system,” she added.

VoteRef.com is a permanent reference source operated by VRF. Those who access the website can search by name or address for registered voters. They also will be able to examine voting histories -- a list of elections that voters participated in, as well as other important election data obtained via official sources.

The VRF was created by Restoration Action, an educational 501c4 organization founded by West Point graduate and successful entrepreneur Doug Truax. A former U.S. Senate candidate in Illinois, Truax is deeply interested in election integrity, as expressed in this recent op-ed in American Greatness.