The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Ex-Fulton elections chief says he suspected problems with automatic voter registrations
It took more than a year before the state fixed a problem with its automatic voter registrations, but the former elections director for Fulton County suspected something was wrong shortly after the trouble began.
Richard Barron — often the target of criticism over Fulton’s difficulties in managing elections, problems that prompted a performance review that could lead to a state takeover of the county’s election board — noticed a problem with the county’s registration applications in February 2021. The county had seen fewer than 6,000 applications that month, a huge drop from the 35,000 during the same month a year earlier.
The same problem was playing out in county election offices across the state.
The rate of Georgians submitting registration information at the driver’s license offices fell from 79% in 2020 to 39% in 2021, according to records obtained by The Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
Barron suspected that the fault lied with the state’s automatic registration program, which was supposed to sign up eligible voters at driver’s licenses offices unless they opted out.
Barron said his staff called and emailed the secretary of state’s office several times.
“We couldn’t get any explanation from the state about why it happened. Whatever was going on, they didn’t want to talk about it,” said Barron, who resigned in March. “I can’t believe the secretary of state didn’t notice unless they were paying no attention.”
It turned out the Georgia Department of Driver Services had shut off automatic voter registration when it redesigned its website in January 2021. Instead of registering drivers by default, the new website required drivers to click “Yes” or “No” when asked whether they wanted to sign up.