This is National Voter Registration month, and there is no better time to make sure you are eligible and registered to vote in the Presidential Preference Primary on Super Tuesday, March 1, 2016 and in next year’s presidential election.
If you are new to Georgia, you need to register to vote. If you have moved within Georgia, you need to register or update your registration. Has it been awhile? Go ahead and check to make sure your registration is still current.
And now you can complete the whole process online. Registering to vote online is convenient. While you will still see paper forms available, Georgia's online registration system is always available and at your fingertips at https://registertovote.sos.ga.gov.
While at the site, you can login to your My Voter Page (MVP), www.mvp.sos.ga.gov/MVP/mvp.do, where you can confirm the accuracy of your personal registration, find your polling place or early voting site, and check the status of your ballot.
Online voter registration improves the voter experience. In the past, it was difficult to know if your paper form reached the correct voter registration office and your name made it onto the list. Most registration problems were not discovered until Election Day, when a voter at the polls was told he or she was never registered.
With an online process, a voter receives immediate feedback. If there is an error, the voter can correct the registration record in real time.
Voters make common mistakes on paper registrations. Even if the information is entirely accurate, paper forms need to be entered manually into the voter registration database, which leads to transcription errors, especially when voters’ handwriting is hard to read.
Online registration is easier and cheaper and yields a more accurate voter list than traditional paper-based systems. Increasing voter roll accuracy at the polls could further reduce congestion and delays at the polling place.
Georgia’s system also increases privacy. Instead of handing over personal information in a registration drive on the street, an applicant’s sensitive data is immediately submitted to election officials. When linked to other government databases like the Georgia Department of Driver Services’, online voter registration increases the overall accuracy and integrity of voter rolls by ensuring only verified Georgians use the system.
In December 2013, the Georgia secretary of state’s office launched a dedicated online voter registration platform that included a mobile app, “GA Votes,” to register voters on iOS and Android smartphones. Since implementation, more than 115,000 Georgians have registered or made changes to their registrations online, and over 2,000 citizens have used their cell phones to register. On last year’s National Voter Registration Day, the secretary of state’s office visited Parkview High School in Lilburn and registered over 400 students simultaneously.
Georgia is a leader in online voter registration, but the process is quickly spreading across the country. The Presidential Commission on Election Administration called for modernizing the registration process by expanding online registration and state collaboration to improve the accuracy of voter lists.
Since then, the Bipartisan Policy Center has been advancing the commission’s recommendations across the country and in states like Florida and Ohio, where we can help form political consensus for bipartisan passage and implementation of best-practice election administration tools. Over 20 states have implemented online voter registration, and seven more have enacted legislation to do so in the near future, including Oklahoma, New Mexico and Florida.
National Voter Registration Month is a great time for all Georgians to prepare for the November 2015 elections, the Presidential Preference Primary and the 2016 general election.
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