Voter ID Rears Its Ugly Head in GA Again

by Eric Marshall

This week I was in Atlanta for the National Bar Association conference.  Wednesday morning I grabbed the complimentary Atlanta Journal-Constitution outside my hotel room room and was greeted with an all too familiar story - "Special vote to require photo ID."  Following a recent Georgia State Supreme Court Ruling, Georgia Secretary of State, Karen Handel, announced voters in the state's September 18^th special elections must present government-issued photo ID. 

Handel's announcement is just another twist in the saga that is Georgia's disenfranchising voter ID law.  In 2005, a bill requiring all in-person voters present a government-issued photo ID passed along party lines and was promptly signed by Republican Governor Sonny Perdue.  The law was immediately challenged in court. In 2005, U.S. District Judge Harold Murphy blocked the law from being implemented for the upcoming elections, calling the law a poll tax.  Judge Murphy again blocked the law in 2006.  During the same time, a Georgia state court ruled that the law violated the Georgia State Constitution.  Proponents of voter ID appealed this ruling to the State Supreme Court.  In June of this year the court unanimously reversed the ruling of the state court.  The justices didn't decide the constitutionality of the law.  Instead they dismissed it on a technicality.

Proponents of the Georgia law argue that photo ID is necessary to combat voter fraud.  However, no examples of polling place fraud have been produced to back up their claims.  Unfortunately the Georgia law is just another attempt by politicians to disenfranchise poor and minority voters for partisan-political gain. 

NCFFE and the Lawyers' Committee will continue to fight this in court.  The case will be heard before Judge Murphy on August 22, 2007.  We will also continue to educate voters and protect their right to vote through our excellent Georgia Election Protection program. 

The Atlanta Journal Constitution summed up Secretary Handel's actions perfectly in their August 2, 2007 editorial, "Handel rehashes voter ID ploy." 

Judges have agreed with voting rights advocates, who point out that it is unconstitutional to construct barriers to the ballot box. Strict laws requiring state-sponsored photo IDs tend to foil poor and elderly voters, who are less likely to own cars and, therefore, less likely to have drivers' licenses.

Of course, that's the very reason the Republican Party has embraced strict voter ID laws in state legislatures across the country: Those laws shave off a small number of voters who tend to support Democrats. In close races, that can make the difference.

Handel has said she will immediately launch a "comprehensive outreach program" to educate voters about the ID requirement. But that's not enough.

If Handel is serious about a comprehensive approach to voter ID, she should launch a massive program aimed at putting a state-sponsored photo ID into the hands of every Georgia voter in the next three years. It would require money to purchase vans and buses to go into rural areas, as well as resources to help the elderly and poor secure any documentation they might need to prove their citizenship.

Anything short of that is just political gamesmanship.