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SAVANNAH, Georgia. – Georgia must make it easier for voters designated as potential citizens to prove their US citizenship at the polls. A federal judge ruled Friday in an injunction ordering the state to change its procedure barely four days before polling day.
State Attorney General spokesman Chris Carr did not immediately say whether the state would appeal. The spokeswoman, Katie Byrd, said that state lawyers were reviewing the order.
Judge Eleanor L. Ross's injunction in the US District Court relates to a specific issue arising from a broader prosecution by human rights groups that launched a broader protest in October. the verification process of the "exact match" conducted by Georgia. The state requires credentials on voter registration applications to accurately match information already registered with the Georgia Department of Driver Services or the Social Security Administration.
Some incompatibilities are caused by variations in a name, such as a deleted hyphen, or because of data entry errors. Others are reported as potential non-citizens, often because the state's driver's license database has not been updated to reflect their naturalization. About 51,100 Georgians were declared ineligible to vote because of such registration problems.
The judge ruled that the state was unfairly imposing about 3,100 voters whose registration was identified as a citizenship problem, because only a deputy registrar is allowed to allow them to vote by secret ballot when voters present a proof of citizenship at the polls. It decided that Georgia should immediately start allowing polling officials, in addition to the Deputy Registrars, to delete the marked voters who presented proof of citizenship.
The state secretary for Georgian elections and Republican candidate for governorship, Brian Kemp, issued a statement claiming that supporters of the lawsuit had forced the state to "waste time and money". Taxpayers' money for the judge to tell us to do something already done. "
But the judge said that the Georgian process of voter compensation with a marked registration did not treat people with citizenship problems. She noted that the poll officials, not just the deputy registrars, could deal with issues reported on issues other than citizenship.
"This raises serious concerns for the Court about the differential treatment of a minority group of people," said Ross' s order. "… The electoral system places a heavy burden on these people."
The complaint indicates that the "exact match" policy disproportionately affects black, Latino and Asian American claimants trying to register. He was deposed against Kemp as he sank into a tight race against Democrat Stacey Abrams, who was trying to become the country's first black governor.
The Kemp office allowed voters who took a stand on citizenship issues to vote after presenting proof of citizenship, such as a US pbadport, to the polls. In cases where a deputy registrar is not available to clear the elector in person and can not be reached by telephone, the electors reported should receive provisional ballots marked with a note from the poll clerk stating that the the elector had submitted proof of citizenship.
Cristina Correia, a state attorney, said at a hearing on Monday that these interim votes would be counted without any further action being required from the elector.
Julie Houk, a lawyer for civil rights groups, said this was not happening. She told the story of a recently naturalized citizen who went to an advance polling place in Fulton County where no deputy registrar was present. The polling station official did not send the man's proof of citizenship to a deputy clerk to clear the flag, Houk said. He was not offered the opportunity to vote on a provisional ballot as a regular ballot.
The judge said in his order that the voting problems of the man intervened "after he has already submitted a proof of citizenship with his application for electoral registration. This is beyond the simple disadvantage. "
Copyright 2018 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, disseminated, rewritten or redistributed.
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