Tue 19 Sep 2006
Georgia Voter Photo-ID Law Smacked Again
Posted by Dave under General Politics , Election 2006 , Georgia PeachesFollowing up last week’s enforcement delay issued by U.S. District Judge Harold Murphy, this time Fulton County Superior Court Judge T. Jackson Bedford Jr. ruled today that requiring a photo ID violates the constitutional rights of voters. Of course, this just means that the issue will move on to the Georgia Supreme Court, but certainly this makes it unlikely that it could be in place for the November election.
To summarize: First it was considered a ‘poll tax’. So provisions were made to have photo ID furnished for free.
Then it was that there was too little time to educate voters. So now time and money have been spent on that.
Then it was concern that too many people who are registered to vote might not have a photo ID.
But in the end, it comes down to whether or not we are prepared to do whatever it eventually takes: even to the extent of changing how voter registration works. Even if the state constitution were to be amended to specifically call out a photo ID (a silly, unnecessary step), I’m sure that it would not be the end of the road for those who seek to keep this requirement from being put in place.
5 Responses to “Georgia Voter Photo-ID Law Smacked Again”
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September 20th, 2006 at 9:28 pm
And now theres talk of a national voter ID initiative/bill. And again, the same democratic complaint that it amounts to a poll tax.
Of course, what Dems are most worried about is that without a picture ID, most dead folks won’t be able to vote.
October 6th, 2006 at 10:12 am
[…] You see, the State Election Board is in a catch-22 situation. The earlier judicial complaints have centered around voter education around the new ID rules. So the Board has been trying multiple ways to make people aware of how to have valid ID. Then in mid-September, we had the latest judicial delay in enforcing the law. So now it will not apply to the November general election. But here we have a letter which has literally “crossed in the mail” and was received by some after the judge postponed enforcement. […]
November 21st, 2006 at 12:56 pm
[…] As I mentioned before, the only way to untangle is to have an amendment to the state constitution in order to specifically spell out the acceptable forms of ID. That seemed to be the crux of the counter-arguments to the last attempt to enforce the Voter ID laws. […]
January 8th, 2007 at 2:26 pm
[…] Georgia’s long-standing struggle over enforcement of enhanced Voter ID rules received significantly more play in the press… and it seems that the last step we were left with was possibly needing to go as far as to amend the state constitution in order to address some of the objections. […]
February 12th, 2007 at 11:45 am
[…] We already know about how attempts to propose stronger Voter ID programs have been delayed again and again by lawsuits. So far, while it certainly seems that the main objections raised in these lawsuits could be corrected by making the state constitution crystal clear on this point, we have heard from new Lt. Governor Casey Cagle that Republicans are unlikely to take up that fight. […]