The midterm elections are less than two months away, which means now is the time for Georgia residents to register to vote or ensure that an existing voter registration is up to date.
A number of competitive seats are up for grabs this year, including one of Georgia’s two U.S. Senate seats, the governorship and numerous other state and local races.
Georgia’s voter registration deadline is Oct. 5, according to the secretary of state’s office. Here’s what you need to know to ensure that you’re prepared.
I’m not sure if I’m registered. Where can I go to find out?
The secretary of state’s My Voter Page is a good place to start. The one-stop portal can help you check your voter registration status, as well as preview sample ballots, check your voting history and locate your nearest early voting location or election-day polling place.
Where do I go to register to vote or update my registration?
Georgia residents have a few different options when it comes to registering to vote for the first time.
The secretary of state’s office allows Georgia residents to register to vote online or by mailing a completed paper application to the secretary of state’s office. A valid Georgia driver’s license is required to complete the online application, but residents who don’t have a driver’s license can complete a paper application using the last four digits of their social security number.
Georgia’s Department of Driver Services also allows voters to automatically register to vote whenever they apply for a new driver’s license or state ID card. Any time you update the address that appears on your ID card, you can automatically update your voter registration as well.
Voters can update an existing voter registration at the secretary of state’s My Voter Page. You can also reach out to your county registrar for their assistance.
How do I know if I need to update my voter registration?
Georgia law requires voters to be registered at their current home address, meaning that if you have moved since the last time you cast a ballot, it’s time to update your voter registration.
Voters who are registered at a nonresidential address, such as a P.O. box, a church, a business or a homeless shelter will also need to update their registration under a 2024 election law known as Senate Bill 189.
Voters who are experiencing homelessness should register to vote at their county registrar’s office under the new law.
Voter registration data, including residents’ addresses, are public and are available for purchase on the secretary of state’s website. Georgia residents who have been the victim of stalking and domestic violence may be eligible for Georgia’s VoteSafe program, which allows participants to register to vote while ensuring that their addresses are kept confidential.
My voter status is marked as “inactive.” What should I do?
The short answer is, vote.
Registered voters are sorted into two categories, “active” and “inactive,” as part of standard voter list maintenance practices. Marking voters as “inactive” is the first step election officials must take in order to remove voters who they suspect have moved away, died, or otherwise become ineligible to vote.
However, federal law restricts how quickly states can remove voters from the rolls and how close to an election officials can conduct routine voter list maintenance, meaning that states must wait years before removing most inactive voters from the rolls. There are some exceptions, such as if a county registrar receives proof that a voter has died, or if a voter reaches out and requests that their registration be removed from the rolls. But in most cases, it takes about eight years for a voter to go from actively registered to eligible for removal.
If you haven’t voted in two consecutive federal elections (such as presidential or midterm elections), you may be moved to inactive status. Once a voter is marked as inactive, they aren’t eligible to be removed from the voter rolls unless they do not vote for the next two federal election cycles.
However, inactive voters are still registered and are therefore eligible to cast a ballot. Showing up to a polling place and voting will automatically restore an inactive voter to active status.
My voter status is marked as “challenged.” What should I do?
In addition to conducting routine voter list maintenance, state law also allows individuals to contest the voter registration status of individual Georgians if they have evidence that someone is improperly registered.
Any registered Georgia voter can challenge an unlimited number of voters who live in their county, and digital tools like EagleAI and ELLY make it easier for users to browse through a wide range of publicly available databases and lodge challenges against voters they believe to be ineligible. Over 63,000 voters were challenged within the span of a few months during the 2024 election cycle, according to an investigation from the Associated Press.
Joseph Kirk, the Bartow County elections director and past president of the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials, said residents should receive a letter from their county election office to notify them if their registration is challenged. He also encouraged voters in “challenged” status to contact their county’s elections office to resolve any issues with their registration.
The solution, he said, “could be filling out a form, it could be a new application, it could be some kind of documentation,” Kirk said. “There are a few different reasons you could be in that status, and the best way to find out what to do next is to call your local office.”
