The AJC is reporting a sharp drop in the rate at which Georgians register to vote when getting a drivers license.
While officials seem to be denying that it’s the result of any kind of a policy change, it coincides with a new computer system for handling drivers licenses. From experience, when you build a system, there are a ton of ways you can nudge people into a particular behavior: defaults, specific wording, placement of choice, and simply speed of form responsiveness all have a huge impact on peoples’ decisions.
It’s all but certain that something like this has just happened.
Given that voter suppression is one of the standard tools that the Republicans use, it’s highly likely that we’re going to see a huge number of people who thought they registered aren’t, and will be turned away at the polls.
While the long-run solution is going to be a national requirement to allow same-day registration, for now, the best you can do is to remind everybody to make sure they’re actually registered.