Georgia voter ID law faces new court challenge
Last year, Georgia passed legislation requiring state voters who did not have a driver's license or other official photo ID to purchase a special photo ID. The law was later ruled unconstitutional because it basically amounted to a poll tax.
State legislators went back to the drawing board and passed an amended version that eliminated fees. The new and "improved" version, approved by the U.S. Dept. of Justice (as was the previous version), is also being challenged in court:
State legislators went back to the drawing board and passed an amended version that eliminated fees. The new and "improved" version, approved by the U.S. Dept. of Justice (as was the previous version), is also being challenged in court:
Critics of Georgia's voter ID law filed a motion Wednesday in a federal court seeking to block its enforcement, arguing the new law is unconstitutional.Opponents say the law places an unnecessary burden on voters and does nothing to prevent fraud:
The motion in U.S. District Court in Rome argues that the amended law adopted by Georgia lawmakers earlier this year and signed into law by Gov. Sonny Perdue disproportionately affects Georgia's elderly, low-income and minority voters.
But legal papers filed Wednesday said there is no evidence of in-person voting fraud in Georgia for at least nine years. And the fraud argument is undercut by the documents which may be used to obtain a voter ID card _ such as a signed application for voter registration _ which are susceptible to fraud themselves, the brief said.According to the article, former Georgia Governor Roy Barnes has filed a separate challenge in Fulton Co. court.
Lawyers also argued that the law in inconsistent, applying only to those people who vote in-person and not those who cast absentee ballots.
The new Voter ID law "imposes a severe burden on the poor, the elderly, the infirm and the less literate who either cannot afford a car, or are no longer able to drive, and who are, therefore, the least mobile of our citizens and least able to make a trip a special trip to the county registrar's office to obtain a 'Georgia voter identification card' or to navigate the requirements of voting absentee," the brief said.
2 Comments:
They keep bragging about how you do not need an ID to vote absentee. This is the area that is most likely affected by fraud, yet they make it easier to do.
Is it legal that some people are allowed to vote without showing an ID while others are required to show one? I would think this would be a good way to challenge the law.
All those dead people who voted for Opehlia Ford would've been mad.
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