← Back to Georgia State University-Atlanta

Register To Vote

Two choices

As a college student, you face a choice when you arrive on campus: vote where you attend school and live for the majority of the year or vote in your hometown. You may only vote in one location.

In order to register to vote in Georgia, you must (1) be a United States citizen; (2) be a legal resident of the county; (3) be at least 17.5 years of age to register and 18 years of age to vote; (4) not be serving a sentence for conviction of a felony involving moral turpitude; and (5) not have been found to be mentally incompetent by a judge.

Georgia has detailed rules to determine if you are a Georgia resident.  As a general rule of thumb, students can usually choose to register at their previous home or in their college town.

However, if students were registered or voted in a different state in the November 2020 General Election, and now want to register to vote in Georgia to vote in the Runoff Election, they will likely be considered to have lost their Georgia residency, absent other circumstances. Click here to check your eligibility and get registered before the 12/7 deadline so you can vote.
Voting in your hometown

Most students who register to vote in their hometown have to request an absentee ballot after successfully registering to vote. Otherwise, you must travel back home to vote in-person on election day. Remember, if you’d like to receive your absentee ballot on campus, request to have the ballot mailed to your campus mailing address.
Voting at school

If you register to vote from your campus address, you can vote in-person at your local polling place.

On-Campus Students If you live in a dorm, your housing address will likely be your dorm’s street address, your dorm name, and your room number as your apartment number. In the mailing address section of your voter registration form, enter the address where you get mail, like your campus mailbox.
Off-Campus Students Off-campus residents are located in different voting districts and must register to vote using their off-campus housing addresses. Students should re-register at their new address if they have moved since their previous registration. Once they have been successfully registered to vote, off-campus residents will receive a postcard informing them of their polling place.