When students at Emory University registered to vote this year, they were faced with two main campus options for guidance: The Emory Votes Initiative, a university-administered program for nonpartisan voter education, or Emory Young Democrats, a student-run club and chapter of the Young Democrats of Georgia.
Georgia’s Young Republicans don’t have a chapter at Emory.
What seemed like one of the only inconsequential choices in a consequential election could potentially cost young voters their ballots.
While the administration’s initiative advised students to list the university’s campus-wide address on registration forms, Young Dems said to list individual residential dorm addresses. For students who chose to register based on the school’s advice and listed the general campus address, that choice could remove them from the rolls per Georgia law.
The basis of many Georgia voter challenges — including the Sept. 17 lawsuit against DeKalb County, where registered Emory students vote — is that there is not a resident living at the address the voter listed on their registration, University of Georgia Political Science Professor Charles Bullock said.