Fewer Georgia voters lack a driver’s license or state ID than initially reported by state election officials, leaving 2% of registered voters without an ID number for absentee voting.
The number of voters who don’t have an ID number on file decreased from 272,000 to 154,000 because the Georgia secretary of state’s office recently updated registration records to include more ID numbers from the Department of Driver Services.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution obtained an updated list of voters without ID numbers matched to their registrations from the secretary of state’s office through the Georgia Open Records Act.
An ID number is required for the easiest method of requesting an absentee ballot under Georgia’s new voting law. Voters who don’t have a driver’s license or state ID number must provide a photocopy of another form of ID for absentee voting.
In previous years, election workers verified absentee voters’ identities by comparing their signatures, addresses and registration information. All in-person voters have been required to show photo ID since 2008.
In all, about 7.5 million voters have an ID number linked to their registrations. Every Georgia voter is required to have some form of ID, but some have other types of identification, such as a U.S. passport, military ID or other documents.
Most voter registrations were already linked to their ID numbers when they obtained a driver’s license or signed up to vote online.
But some voters were erroneously listed as not having ID if they obtained or renewed their license prior to September 2016, when Georgia started automatically registering voters at driver’s license offices. Before then, the Department of Driver Services didn’t submit voters’ information to election officials unless they asked to be registered.
The secretary of state’s office didn’t respond to requests for comment.
Election officials and the Department of Driver Services reconciled voting records to add ID numbers in the months since the state’s new voting law, Senate Bill 202, passed in March.
The 154,411 Georgians without ID numbers on file are disproportionately Black voters, according to an AJC comparison of the state’s voter registration and ID lists. Black voters make up 58% of those who lack ID linked to their registrations while accounting for 30% of the state’s registered voters.
Many voters who don’t have ID numbers on file also have never cast a ballot. About 93,000 of the registered voters without an ID number have no record of ever voting in Georgia, according to state election data.
The new ID requirements are already in place for absentee voters in upcoming local elections this fall. About 11,200 voters have requested absentee ballots so far for municipal elections, including the race for Atlanta mayor, after 1.3 million cast absentee ballots in last year’s presidential election.
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