Judge orders Georgia counties to halt voter purge ahead of Senate runoff

Counties appeared to have improperly relied on unverified change-of-address information to invalidate voter registrations

Two Georgia counties must reverse their decision to purge thousands from voter rolls in advance of the state's 5 January runoff elections that will determine whether Democrats or Republicans control the US Senate.

Georgia federal judge Leslie Abrams Gardner said in an order filed late on Monday that these two counties appeared to have improperly relied on unverified change-of-address information to invalidate voter registrations, Reuters reported.