State Senate targets automatic voter registration
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Georgia Republican lawmakers are pushing a law that could undo what advocates and election officials call a smart way to register citizens to vote.
Why it matters: The measure, which the Georgia Senate could consider as early as this week, is one of several election-related bills playing to the GOP's grassroots that could make voting more difficult in the swing state.
Driving the news: Under SB 221, people would have to opt in to register to vote when they renew or obtain a driver's license.
- Georgia's current system automatically enters people into the registration system unless they opt out.
- The bill would also make it easier for people to challenge a voter’s registration status.
Zoom in: State Sen. Max Burns (R-Sylvania), the bill's sponsor, says he's concerned voter rolls could clog up with duplicate registrations.
- "There needs to be some conscious decision of the Georgia voter saying, 'I wish to ensure I'm registered in Georgia,'" Burns said last week, according to the AJC.
- Burns is also sponsoring measures to block QR codes from ballots and give the State Election Board the power to investigate the secretary of state.
The other side: Voting rights advocates consider the current "motor-voter" program a civic engagement success.
- Since its launch in 2016 under then-Secretary of State Brian Kemp, the percentage of eligible Georgians registered to vote has jumped from 78% to 98%, according to a June 2023 report.
- State election officials told the Senate's committee on ethics that the system is the "best voter list maintenance tool we have."
What they're saying: State Rep. Saira Draper (D-Atlanta) told the Senate committee that the legislation "actually undermines the goals of your bill: to make the voter rolls clean and increase voter security."
- Cody Hall, the head of a pro-Kemp PAC and the governor's former spokesman, shared that sentiment, tweeting that the bill "somehow manages to both undermine voter access and election security at the same time. A uniquely terrible idea."
What's next: The Senate ethics committee approved the measure 6-5 on party lines. Now the rules committee can either hold the measure or schedule it for a vote in the full Senate.