Metro Atlanta voter registration nosedives at citizenship ceremonies

Ahead of the 2026 midterm elections, metro Atlanta nonprofits registered significantly fewer newly naturalized U.S. citizens relative to the 2024 election cycle — the result of a Trump administration directive that barred their access to most citizenship ceremonies.

A coalition of nonpartisan groups led, in part, by the League of Women Voters of Georgia began offering voter registration services for immigrants at Atlanta area citizenship ceremonies in 2013.

In 2024, that coalition registered a high of 14,435 voters at the events. But in 2026, registration totals as of early October have slid to fewer than 500.

Naturalized U.S. citizens can still complete the registration process on their own. But Diane Fisher, director of voter registration at the League of Women Voters of Georgia, said unfamiliarity with the electoral system and language barriers can keep new Americans from successfully registering, absent in-person assistance from volunteers.

Recent statewide races in Georgia have been decided by razor-thin margins, making even small shifts in turnout potentially meaningful.

“We would go in, do voter registration right after the ceremonies,” Fisher said. “ … It was a very, very robust program. And literally overnight, everything pretty much stopped.”

`Not a nefarious thing’

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, the agency that administers the legal immigration system, issued a directive in August 2025 barring nonprofits from providing voter registration services at agency facilities following naturalization ceremonies, citing “the administrative burden on USCIS” to ensure those efforts are nonpartisan.

The policy memo said only state and local election officials are permitted to conduct voter registration after the ceremonies. It also referenced a “reduced need for nongovernmental organizations to assist new citizens with collecting and submitting their voter registration applications” because of the widespread availability of online voter registration.

Election officials in DeKalb County, where the USCIS field office is, have not been involved with registration at citizenship ceremonies, a DeKalb spokesperson confirmed. The Georgia secretary of state’s office did not respond when asked if it has been helping register voters at the USCIS facility.

Volunteers with Fisher’s coalition have still been able to register hundreds of voters at citizenship ceremonies this year because some are sporadically held at federal courthouses. But the bulk of the ceremonies take place at USCIS’s Atlanta field office, Fisher said.

Vanishing access to the ceremonies occurred alongside ongoing concern from the Trump administration around largely disproven claims of noncitizen voting, and fewer people being approved for citizenship.

“For years, the Biden administration prioritized rubber-stamping naturalization applications with minimal vetting,” a USCIS spokesperson said in a statement to the AJC. “Under the Trump administration, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services is reinforcing robust screening and vetting and has implemented reforms to ensure U.S. citizenship is reserved for those who qualify.

“USCIS will not take shortcuts in the naturalization process.”

Like other U.S. citizens, naturalized immigrants may independently fill out a voter registration application on the Georgia secretary of state’s website — though there is no possibility as part of that process to attach proof of citizenship.

The system may then be unable to automatically verify those individuals’ updated citizenship status, leaving their voter registration applications pending. To resolve the issue, applicants must send proof of citizenship to their local county election officials, including a copy of their passport or naturalization certificate.

“There are steps all along the way that could cause people to have hiccups,” Fisher said.

Election officials with Fulton, Gwinnett and DeKalb counties said they accept documents to resolve pending voter registration applications electronically, by physical mail or in person.

A spokesperson with Georgia’s secretary of state’s office said naturalized citizens with pending voter registration applications can bring proof of citizenship to polls and cast provisional ballots.