State’s New Voter Registration System Passes First Test

Dave Williams

Monday, November 13th, 2023

Capitol Beat is a nonprofit news service operated by the Georgia Press Educational Foundation that provides coverage of state government to newspapers throughout Georgia. For more information visit capitol-beat.org.

A new statewide voter registration system has passed its first test with a successful run during this week’s municipal elections across Georgia.

GARViS, a cloud-based data warehousing system deployed in all 159 Georgia counties last February, allowed for a faster, more streamlined voter check-in process during early voting ahead of Tuesday’s Election Day, Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger said Wednesday.

Then on Election Day itself, in-person voters were checked in using the state’s new electronic poll books -called Poll Pads – for the first time in state history. That let voters see voter credit on their GA My Voter Page within 30 minutes of checking in at the polls.

“The first major test of GARViS was a resounding success,” Raffensperger said. “Shorter wait times means less confusion at the polls, less errors, and increased voter confidence. We applaud our county election officials for getting the job done once again.”

GARViS was used by 122 counties that conducted municipal elections this fall. Local elections officials gave the new system positive reviews.

GARViS is the product of more than 150,000 hours of testing and deployment. The system hosts more than 12 million records of Georgia voters, including those of more than 7 million active voters.

 

About Dave Williams

Dave Williams has covered state government and politics in Georgia since 1999 and for several years before that, covered Georgia’s congressional delegation in Washington, D.C. He began his career in radio news in Florida and Upstate New York.