[Since Georgia implemented automatic voter registration in 2016,
its number of registered voters has increased by about 1.5 million.
But will it survive Republican assaults?] [[link removed]]

GEORGIA SHOWS THE PROMISE OF AUTOMATIC VOTER REGISTRATION  
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Benjamin Barber
September 1, 2021
Facing South
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_ Since Georgia implemented automatic voter registration in 2016, its
number of registered voters has increased by about 1.5 million. But
will it survive Republican assaults? _

Twenty states, including three in the South, offer some form of
automatic voter registration. These programs are now under attack as
part of a broader Republican assault on voting rights. ,

 

Voters in last year's presidential election flipped crucial swing
states including the Republican stronghold of Georgia, where a
Democratic presidential candidate hadn't won in 28 years
[[link removed]].
New data shows that a main factor behind the outcome in Georgia was a
surge in the number of registered voters due in large part to the
state's automatic voter registration. The program automatically
registers eligible residents when they interact with the state's
Department of Driver Services (DDS) and updates voter information for
those already registered.

Since Georgia implemented automatic voter registration in 2016, its
number of registered voters has increased by about 1.5 million, to a
total of 7.7 million. Around 67% of the new registrations came from
the state's automatic voter registration program, according to a new
report
[[link removed]] from
the U.S. Election Assistance Commission (EAC).

Georgia now has one of the highest voter registration rates in the
nation, with 95% of eligible citizens registered to vote. Compare that
to the neighboring states of Alabama, Florida, North Carolina, and
South Carolina, which do not have automatic registration and where the
rates of eligible citizens registered to vote are 92, 94, 85, and 91%,
respectively.

"The continued growth of Georgia's registered voting population is a
testament to the simple and easy registration options the Secretary of
State's office provides to Georgia voters, including automated
registration through DDS," Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, a
Republican, noted
[[link removed]] last
year.

The idea to automatically register every eligible American to vote
once they turned 18 was first proposed
[[link removed]] by
President Jimmy Carter of Georgia in the 1970s. He believed automatic
voter registration would "transform, in a beneficial way, the politics
of our country."

Carter's proposal never became law. But in 2015, Oregon became the
first state in the country to automatically register voters who have
driver's licenses, adding 300,000 voters to the rolls by 2016
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As of this year, 20 states and the District of Columbia have enacted
some form of automatic voter registration, according to the Brennan
Center for Justice
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Only three of these states are in the South: Georgia, Virginia, and
West Virginia. In Virginia, the percentage of registered voters jumped
to 93 percent in 2020, an increase of 9 percentage points from 2016.
While West Virginia's program has also been on the books since 2016,
full implementation of the law has been delayed, and only 75% of the
state's eligible voters are currently registered, according to the EAC
data.

In recent years, legislation to implement automatic voter registration
has been introduced in every Southern state legislature, according to
the Brennan Center for Justice
[[link removed]] —
but the policy faces GOP opposition.

Republican lawmakers nationwide introduced
[[link removed]] a
record number of bills this year to limit access to the ballot and
give their party an advantage in future elections. Among the proposals
were plans to block or end automatic voter registration.

In Georgia, lawmakers introduced a package of restrictive voting
bills
[[link removed]] that
included a measure [[link removed]] to
end automatic registration of people getting their driver's licenses.
Introduced in the state Senate, the bill was tabled in March.

State lawmakers in West Virginia also considered a bill
[[link removed]] that
would have ended the state's still-dormant automatic voter
registration program, leaving in place the existing policy where
residents doing business with the Division of Motor Vehicles can
choose to opt in to register. The bill had the support of both the
West Virginia Secretary of State's Office and the West Virginia County
Clerks Association, but voting rights advocates worried that it would
open the door for voter suppression efforts. While the measure passed
the state Senate, the House Judiciary Committee chose not to proceed
with it.

With the state-level GOP assault on voting rights continuing, there's
growing pressure on federal lawmakers to pass the For the People Act
[[link removed]],
far-reaching pro-democracy legislation that among other things would
require states to use automatic voter registration for federal
elections. Voting advocates say that if the policy were adopted
nationwide, it would register up to 50 million new voters while making
voter rolls more accurate, saving money, and cutting down on confusion
at the polls. An AP-NORC poll
[[link removed]] from
earlier this year found that automatic voter registration was one of
the most popular election reforms in the survey, with support from 60%
of Americans.

The Democratic-controlled House passed the For the People Act in
March, but it's being blocked in the Senate by Republicans employing
the filibuster, which requires 60 votes to close debate and take a
vote on non-spending legislation. While there are calls to end the
filibuster, which has long been used to undermine progressive reforms
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it's being defended by lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. They
include Democratic Sens. Joe Manchin of West Virginia and Kyrsten
Sinema of Arizona, who may face tough primary challenges
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of it.

Benjamin Barber [[link removed]]
is a researcher and writer with Facing South. @Ben_Barber_
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