Decision Bars Georgia From Continuing Voter Verification Process
Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel issued the following statement following the U.S. Department of Justice’s denial of preclearance of Georgia’s voter verification process
Atlanta - “The decision by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) to deny preclearance of Georgia’s already implemented citizenship verification process shows a shocking disregard for the integrity of our elections. With this decision, DOJ has now barred Georgia from continuing the citizenship verification program that DOJ lawyers helped to craft. DOJ’s decision also nullifies the orders of two federal courts directing Georgia to implement the procedure for the 2008 general election. The decision comes seven months after Georgia requested an expedited review of the preclearance submission.
“DOJ has thrown open the door for activist organizations such as ACORN to register non-citizens to vote in Georgia’s elections, and the state has no ability to verify an applicant’s citizenship status or whether the individual even exists. DOJ completely disregarded Georgia’s obvious and direct interest in preventing non-citizens from voting, instead siding with the ACLU and MALDEF. Clearly, politics took priority over common sense and good public policy.
“It is our position that S.B. 84’s modifications to the voter ID requirements…are insignificant and superficial corrections to a deeply flawed statute, and in no way remediate the discriminatory and retrogressive effect of the voter ID requirements established by H.B. 244,†wrote the coalition of more than two dozen groups, including the ACLU, Common Cause/Georgia, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, NAACP, NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund, Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials, AARP, League of Women Voters, National Voting Rights Institute and other organizations. “In fact, it is our reasoned opinion that the circumstances surrounding passage of S.B. 84 are even more indicative of the retrogressive nature of the statute than those surrounding enactment of H.B. 244.â€
