Told its voter initiative’s Georgia registration info was wrong, Emory to alert students via email
The Emory University administration says it will send a campus-wide email to students later Thursday after a reporter pointed out prior incorrect guidance provided by the Emory Voter Initiative about registering to vote in time for Georgia’s November election.
The email will contain “additional information,” Luke Anderson, Emory Vice President of Communications and Marketing wrote in an email to the Georgia Recorder this morning after a reporter sent an email to Emory’s president Wednesday night to confirm that the school knew its Emory Votes Initiative had advised students for weeks to register using the main campus address instead of dorm street addresses. The message comes on the heels of the Recorder’s Monday reporting on the misinformation given to Emory student voters.
The Georgia Secretary of State’s office and president of the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials confirmed last month that registrations using the main campus address are invalid and students who used that instead of their dorm’s street address, would be subject to challenges at the precinct. The deadline for mass challenges in Georgia has passed, but individual challenges can be pressed up until a voter casts a ballot in Georgia, according to state law.
The Emory Votes Initiative is an administration-sanctioned program through Emory’s Center for Civic and Community Engagement.
“Georgia law requires registered voters to register at their residential address,” Robert Sinners, communications director for Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger told the Georgia Recorder in a statement last week, citing Georgia code.
Sinners added that students are required to update their registrations each year to reflect their dorm addresses, even if they move within campus.
“Since the student is moving from one address to another, they must update their Voter Registration Address to reflect their new address of residency,” he said. “The reason why this is important is because districts (especially Municipal, State House, State Senate, etc.) may cut through a particular college campus or street. Moving a few blocks away could change the ballot that you receive in November.”
When asked directly about students using a general campus address instead of their specific residential address and whether it would impact their ability to vote last week, Sinners reiterated that Georgia law requires voters to register at their residential address.
Travis Doss Jr., president of the Georgia Association of Voter Registration and Election Officials and executive director of the Augusta-Richmond County Board of Elections, said there is a potential for Emory registrations with Emory Votes Initiative’s information to be challenged. Though there is a 45-day period before the election that prevents mass voter challenges, he said, that would not prevent the possibility of a targeted challenge.
“There’s also a provision in the law that states that an individual voter can be challenged up until the time that they cast their ballot,” Doss said.
At least hundreds of Emory students registered online with the incorrect information the Emory Votes Initiative provided through the program’s portal. In the 30 days before September 21, 328 students registered using TurboVote, an online system EVI uses to register students, and 426 registered using the system starting July 1.
The number of affected students is likely more than that since the numbers only represent those who used the online TurboVote system and most students register with EVI in person or using EVI website resources on their own.
This story was provided by WABE content partner Georgia Recorder.
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