Georgia's voter file

Georgia's voter file—officially called the Voter Registration List—is maintained by the Georgia Secretary of State and updated continuously. It is available to the public (with restrictions on commercial use) and to campaigns, researchers, and advocacy organizations. It is one of the most powerful datasets for voting rights analysis in the state.

What each row represents

Each row in the voter file represents one registered voter. A voter who has moved and re-registered may appear with an updated address, or may appear twice if the de-duplication has not yet run. Each row represents a person at a specific address, at a specific point in time.

Key fields

• Voter Registration Number (VRN): A unique identifier assigned by the state. This is the primary key. Never rely on name matching across datasets—always join on VRN when possible.
• Full name: Last, first, middle. Name-based matching has quality issues (nickname variation, hyphenation, spelling inconsistency).
• County: Georgia has 159 counties. County is a core unit of analysis because most election administration happens at the county level.
• Precinct: The sub-county unit where the voter actually votes. Precinct assignment can change when districts are redrawn.
• Congressional and legislative districts: The file includes the voter's current congressional, state senate, and state house district assignments.
• Registration date: When the voter registered. Used for recency analysis and for calculating how long someone has been registered before an election.
• Party: Georgia has open primaries, so party affiliation reflects which primary the voter participated in, not formal registration. This is distinct from closed-primary states.
• Race/ethnicity: Georgia collects self-reported race from registrants. This field enables demographic analysis but has known quality issues—roughly 15–20% of voters are listed as "Unknown."
• Voting history: A set of fields indicating which elections the voter participated in (e.g., "2024GEN", "2022GEN", "2020GEN", "2020PRIM"). These are binary flags—they show participation, not how the voter voted (ballots are secret).
• Address: Residential address. Used for geospatial joins to census blocks and precincts.
• Status: Active or inactive. Inactive voters have been flagged (usually due to returned mail) and may be purged if they do not vote or confirm their address.