O.C.G.A. § 21-2-223 (2019)
Mail voter registration application forms
(a) The Secretary of State shall design, publish, and distribute voter registration application forms with which a person may apply to register to vote by completing and mailing the form to the Secretary of State or to the board of registrars of the person’s county of residence. The Secretary of State shall forward the applications that he or she receives to the appropriate county board of registrars to determine the
ELECTIONS & PRIMARIES
eligibility of the applicant and, if found eligible, to add the applicant’s name to the list of electors and to place the applicant in the correct precinct and voting districts. (b) The county boards of registrars shall obtain and maintain a supply of mail voter registration application forms for distribution and for voter registration. In addition, each state, county, and municipal office, except an office which is a designated voter registration office under Code Section 21-2-222, which has regular contact with the public shall obtain a supply of mail voter registration application forms from the Secretary of State and make such applications available for use by citizens to register to vote. (c) The mail voter registration application forms shall be made available through governmental and private entities with particular emphasis on making such forms available for organized voter registration programs.
History
Code 1981, § 21-2-223, enacted by Ga.
L. 1994, p. 1443, § 3; Ga. L. 1998, p. 295, § 1; Ga. L. 2010, p. 914, § 9/HB 540.
Annotations
JUDICIAL DECISIONS Injunction was properly issued against officials who rejected voter registration forms. - Preliminary injunction was properly issued against state officials who had rejected voter registration forms that had been mailed to the Georgia Secretary of State because the plaintiffs were substantially likely to prevail in their suit and the public interest was served by the preservation of the applicants’ voting rights because: (1) the Secretary of State had rejected the forms based upon the fact that they had been bundled and mailed in together, rather than individually; (2) state law had to comply with the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 (NVRA), 42 U.S.C. § 1973gg et seq. (see now 52 U.S.C. § 20501 et seq.); (3) the NVRA did not prohibit registration drives or prohibit third-party submission of individual voter registration forms and specifically required that states should register all voters that timely mailed in valid voter registration forms; and (4) Georgia’s antibundling policy did little, if anything, to
prevent fraud or assist in the assessment of voter eligibility. Charles H. Wesley Educ. Found., Inc. v. Cox, 408 F.3d 1349, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 8320 (11th Cir. 2005). Plaintiffs had standing to challenge rejection of voter registration forms which they mailed to the Georgia Secretary of State where: (1) the Secretary of State rejected the forms based upon the fact that the forms were bundled and mailed in together, rather than mailed individually; (2) the plaintiffs’ claim, that the rejection of the forms violated their rights under the National Voter Registration Act of 1993, 42 U.S.C. § 1973gg et seq. (see now 52 U.S.C. § 20501 et seq.), was sufficient to allege a legal injury-infact that was fairly attributable to the conduct of the state officials that were sued in the suit; and (3) the plaintiffs did not have to show that their claims were valid or that they would prevail in the suit in order to have standing to assert their claims. Charles H. Wesley Educ. Found., Inc. v. Cox, 408 F.3d 1349, 2005 U.S. App. LEXIS 8320 (11th Cir. 2005).