Three Democratic members of Georgia’s Congressional delegation have sent a letter to Gov. Brian Kemp urging him to “investigate a 40 percent decline” in the rate of Georgians utilizing automatic voter registration through the Georgia Department of Driver Services. Congresswoman Carolyn Bourdeaux (D-GA-07), Rep. Sanford Bishop (D-GA-02) and Rep. Nikema Williams (D-GA-05) also sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland after they say a report indicated the rate of people registering to vote through the state DDS has fallen from 79 percent in 2020 to 39 percent in 2021.
In the letter to Gov. Kemp, the three U.S. Representatives made three requests, including a “thorough investigation of the decline in the rate of voter registrations at DDS and immediately remediate any changes at DDS or the Georgia Secretary of State’s office which are found to have led to the decline.”
The letter also asks that the state “provide an opportunity for individuals who attempt to vote in this year’s election, but are not registered to vote, to cast a provisional ballot.” The letter goes on to say that if those individuals are found to have interacted with DDS after January 2021 and were not automatically registered due to software error, design flaw, or other issue revealed through your investigation, their vote must be counted.
“Georgia’s long history of making it more difficult for people to exercise their right to vote and the rapidly approaching Georgia primary elections only enhance the need for urgency in investigating this issue,” said Bourdeaux. “Right now, it is possible for voters around the state to think they are registered, only to learn they are not on election day. Gov. Kemp and the DOJ must immediately investigate this discrepancy to ensure all voters have time to resolve their voter status before the coming April deadline.”
The letter was dated April 20 – which was less than a week away from the state’s voter registration deadline (April 25) and two weeks prior to the state of early voting in the Primary,
Georgia is one of 22 states with automatic voter registration, which signs up voters at driver’s license offices unless they opt out of the program. Since Georgia began its automatic registration in 2016, reports indicate the state’s voter rolls grew by more than 1 million to a current total of 7.7 million voters.
