Civil Rights Groups Urge Justice Department to Block GA Photo ID Law(ACLU)

[Up2Late]

(This is an ACLU Press Release, so I don't think it falls under the 4 paragraph rule)

Civil Rights Groups Urge Justice Department to Block Georgia Photo ID Law

July 8, 2005

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: [e-mail]

New Law Would Discriminate Against Minority Voters, Groups Charge

ATLANTA -- More than two dozen civil rights, religious, labor and advocacy groups urged the Department of Justice to block implementation of a new Georgia law which they say will have a substantially negative "racial impact" on minority voters. The groups argue that the new photo identification requirements contained in Georgia House Bill 244 are unnecessary and were purposefully adopted to make minority voters worse off.

According to the American Civil Liberties Union Voting Rights Project, which is part of the coalition, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 requires that any changes to election laws in nine states, including Georgia, as well as portions of seven others, receive clearance from federal officials before going into effect.

"Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act clearly places the burden of proof on Georgia officials to show that this new law does not have a discriminatory purpose or effect," said Neil Bradley, Associate Director of the ACLU Voting Rights Project in Atlanta. "Based on Georgia’s own submission to the Justice Department, it is clear that the state has failed that test and the law should not be permitted to go into effect."

House Bill 244, which was passed on March 31 and signed by Governor Sonny Perdue in April, reduces the various forms of identification that voters can use from 17 to six, and makes photo identification absolutely required in order to vote.

In a 13-page letter sent late yesterday, 25 groups and seven attorneys cite recent census data showing that African Americans in Georgia are nearly five times less likely than whites to have access to a motor vehicle, and hence are less likely to possess a drivers’ license, which is one of the approved forms of photo identification. African Americans also are nearly six times more likely than whites in Georgia to live below the poverty line. And because Georgia has only 56 Department of Motor Vehicle Services (DMVS) offices statewide, compared to its 159 counties, African Americans will face increased obstacles and costs to securing photo identification, said the groups.

"Sixty years ago, Georgia's all-white legislature abolished the poll tax, thereby preventing any Georgia citizen from being charged money to vote. This new law turns back the clock and violates that principle," said Bradley.

In the letter, the groups argue that the primary justification for Georgia’s new photo identification requirements -- to deter voter fraud -- was both flawed and unfounded. The groups pointed to the state’s already severe criminal sanctions for voter fraud, and noted the absence of evidence that fraud by impersonating a voter is a problem in Georgia.

"The photo identification provisions of HB 244 are an affront to many of our most basic legal principles and jurisprudence related to a person’s fundamental right to vote," said Seth Cohen, an Atlanta-based attorney with the international law firm Kilpatrick Stockton LLP and a member of the counsel committee that helped prepare the letter. "As the letter to the DOJ demonstrates, this is a belief that is shared by a diverse group of individuals and organizations and which is supported by an overabundance of facts."

The groups also called on the Justice Department to more thoroughly investigate a number of factors before deciding whether to authorize implementation of H.B. 244, including the racial breakdown of counties with and without DMVS locations, the travel distance to DMVS locations from areas with high concentrations of minority voters and other socio-economic data associated with the cost and use of photo identification by minorities.

"We hope and expect the Justice Department to do its job by requiring the state to meet its burden of proof to show why this new legislation will not harm minority voters," said Jon Greenbaum, Director of the Voting Rights Project for the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and a former DOJ attorney. "From our point of view, the evidence is quite clear that the state has not met that burden and H.B. 244 will make minority voters considerably worse off."

A copy of the letter can be found at: http://www.aclu.org/VotingRights/VotingRights.cfm?ID=18648&c=168.

A copy of Georgia Secretary of State Cathy Cox's letter urging Governor Sonny Perdue to veto H.B. 244 can be found at: http://www.aclu.org/VotingRights/VotingRights.cfm?ID=18652&c=168.

<http://www.aclu.org/VotingRights/VotingRights.cfm?ID=18653&c=168>

[napi21]

1. OK, someone please explaine to me why this photo ID is a problem.

I live in Ga. I have a state issued photo ID because I can't drive anymore due to neuropathy. I got the photo ID so I can cash checks, buy a drink, get on an airplane, etc.

WHY does the ACLU think this could possibly be racially harmful?

[Atman]

2. Did you even read the article, napi?

It sounds pretty clear to me. Glad you have money and access to a DMV. Now go read (or re-read) the article.

[napi21]

6. Oh yeah, I have money!

I admit, I can't work anymore, but my husband does, and he earns a whopping $25,000/yr. If you want to consider that as having money, I guess I do! As to access to the DMV, just who in Ga doesn't have access to a DMV? I don't hear people complaining about not being able to get a drivers license because they can't get to a DMV office.

[RubyDuby in GA]

3. There are many counties in GA that don't have a

licensing bureau. It is a targeting tactic by the state's GOP (1st year in control) to eliminate a historically Democratic voting population.

As a member of the Voter Registration committee for the State Committee of the DPG, I can tell you that this is a horrible mess for Georgia.

[napi21]

7. What counties don't have a DMV office?

And I find it VERY hard to believe that it's targeting Dem voters.

Most Dem voters are in the cities in Ga. The only places I can imagine that might not have an office would be in the very rural areas of the state. Take a look at the voting maps sometime. They are all GOP voters!!!!

I don't know what the DPG is, so I can't comment on that.

[RubyDuby in GA]

11. I would dare say that I've looked at the maps plenty more than you

and the DPG is the Democratic Party of Georgia, of which I am a State Committee member, serving on the steering committee for Voter Registration.

If you would look at the maps of the last few elections, you would see that there are quite a few areas that used to vote Dem and they aren't in the metro Atlanta area. The extreme southwestern corner of the state (Decatur, Grady, Mitchell, Baker, Early, Doughetry, Calhoun, Clay, Randolph, Terrell, Quitman, Steward, Webster, Sumter, Dooly, Brooks, Clinch, Marion, Chattahoochee, Macon and Muscogee - I'm using the 2002 results as an indicator of state/local politics) and a good swath of counties in the middle of the state (Bibb, Twiggs, Wilkinson, Washington, Jefferson, Hancock, Burke, Richmond, Warren, Taliaferro, Wilkes, Talbot and Meriwehter) and the coastal counties of Chatham, Liberty and McIntosh (and Chatham is host to two very large military bases) have always been blue, but they are rapidly shrinking.

The 2004 race was a disaster for Dems in GA. Look at non-presidential years and you will see that Dems have previously done well in rural areas and these are the areas that do not have easy access to licensing bureaus because of cutbacks from the Perdue administration.

[napi21]

13. My apologies for not recognizing the Dem Party of Ga.

I haven't seen the abreviation enough to recognize it. Sorry!

I'm sure you have looked at a lot more maps than I have.

I a;so admit, I've only lived in Ga for 5 years, so I an not familiar with much past history.

May I please tell you what I found shocking when I voted in Nov. 2004. Once I got past the top of the ballot, almost EVERY candidate was a Pub running unopposed! What's with that?

I pay more attention to politics than most people around me, and I did a lot of research on line about candidates that were running and you don't hear much via TV coverage, but even I was stunned when I saw all those seats that weren't even challanged!

If you believe this new photo ID law in Ga is wrong, I hope you win! I just said I don't see the problem. I think the Dem party here has a much bigger problem than that though.

[RubyDuby in GA]

17. I completely agree about no Dems running against the Repubs

In my county, I am the Vice-Chair of our party and I have repeatedly told them that next year, we will have someone running in every race, even if we know we are going to lose miserably and even if I have to run myself! Show them they're not going to walk all over us and more importantly make them spend their $$$$.

And you're not kidding about the state party having big problems. Some actual leadership would be nice :)

[CottonBear]

14. There is only 1 DMV office in the Athens area and it serves many counties.

Perdue (who I've met and told I would not vote for him) shut down our Athens Kroger grocery store DVM office where one could go and get the license renewed in Athens (in the city on on public transit routes and accesible by bike, car and foot) and not out in the rural part of the county at the Stae PAtrol office on US HWY 29. The Kroger branch DVM was accessible to the working poor (white, black Hispanic) the very poor (mostly black), and students and others without cars.

Who the hell do you think won't get a fucking license?

Furthermore, UGA and other GA Univ. system universitiy and college IDs will be accepted but not PRIVATE universities like all of the historically black colleges and universities. Discrimination anyone?

:grr:

[roseBudd]

4. because really poor people don't drive, move a lot, get robbed and

or evicted at which point they often lose everything and generally just either can't or don't have it together enough to have checking accounts, vehicles or the necessary information/transportaion to get the ID. Poor people should have just as much chance of having a voice as other groups. making the IDs free still does not address how you get the information and the free IDs to the poor people. Unlike most republicans I don't hate poor people and I really want them to vote. Republicans don't want them to vote because they tend to vote democratic.

[napi21]

9. I believe you on the driving, moving and even the eviction stuff,

but robbed? What is being taken? I would do anything I could to help someone get their ID. It's increasingly easier to notify registration offices that you moved. I agree poor people should have just as much chance to have a voice as anyone else, but are you next going to tell me that we've done everything to make sure these people have the proper credentials to vote, but now they can't get to the polls?

Comeon. AT some point, there has to be at least a degree of voter responsibility. You have to want to vote!

[roseBudd]

19. You doubt that the poor who live in the very neighborhoods with

the highest crime rates are the victims of robbery? Where do you live the suburbs?

I did all my pre-election GOTV in the inner city. The poor were registered, motivated and they expressed alarm at the prospect of 4 more years of Bush as they have faced the most economic pressure in the past 5 years. The GOP knows that turnout among the poor and minorities was higher in 04. This is all about placing obstacles to voting for likely democratic voters. If you don't get how difficult it would be to get all eligible poor voters set up with IDs free or not, then you need to get out of the suburbs and start climbing tenement steps. How do you get ID when you have none?

Everyone over the age of 18 should be allowed to vote. Everyone in Bagdad was automatically registered. Republicans want to suppress the vote. That is part of their game play.

[Up2Late]

5. It's the new requirement to have only this form of I.D. in order to vote

and the fact that it's a Violation of the 1965 Voting Rights Act, that they are protesting this.

I always thought it was kind of odd, the different types of I.D. you could use to vote, but I have to agree, this total disregard of a Federal Voter Protection Law is a big deal.

It would set a precedence for all the other former "Jim Crow Law" states, so they could start throwing out their Voting Protection Laws too.

On the Single type of I.D. issue, it presents a major problem for a lot of Poor, Rural and Older People to have to find a way to get to the places that issue these.

BTW, I'm here in Cobb Co. :hi:

[RubyDuby in GA]

8. Hi Up2Late!

Wow! Another Cobb Dem? I think I know all 4 of you. hehe
Newton Co here :hi:

And this is a direct violation of the VRA. The state party is asking everyone to right to the Dept of Justice and let them know that this will hinder people from voting. Plus it does not address absentee ballot voting, which is where the overwhelmingly vast majority of voter fraud occurs. This is nothing more than a big wet sloppy kiss from the asshats in the state legislature to the state GOP.

[Up2Late]

16. I only know one, that's "MsTryska" but I haven't actually...

...met her yet.

Who else do you know from Cobb?

[napi21]

12. I'm in Hall. I found it a bit strange too that some of the forms of ID

were a bit much too. I don't want the Jim Crow laws to come back, though I didn't live here then. It just seems like there's too much being made out of this issue.

A lot of the older people you're talking aobut or the poor people who don't drive, at some time during a year, could find a way to get to a DMV office, I'm sure. It has to be important enough to them to make the effort! I suspect, once the older person once gets their ID, they don't move around a lot, and it's valid for 6 years. Is it really too much to ask someone to get to an office once every six years???

[Up2Late]

15. The major issue with Poor People (and I currently am one) is...

...that, these "Good Ol' Boys, who tend to be the ones that own most of the Small Businesses (and pay the lowest wages) don't value their low pay workers (they look at us as a "dime a dozen"), they get you in a sort of trap.

You can't afford to miss a day's work (or even 1/2 a day's) to go stand in line to get your photo ID or Drivers License, and they won't let you take a long lunch or an extra hour off to go get it, and if you do with out their consent, they fire you, for taking un-authorized Personal time.

And like was said above, without a Drivers License, you can't drive a car, and without a car, you have to rely on Public transportation, but it almost never goes where you need to go, and if it does, it takes 1/2 a day, which gets you fired.

I'm sure this sounds confusing, it is, and I've probably even forgotten some of the ways they screw with you too, but I bet you get the point.

[alarimer]

20. Because some people are less liklely to have photo ids

This makes it difficult for them to vote. it sounds potentially discriminatory to me. WHy they the hell should you need photo id to vote anyway?? Is it a huge problem that unregistered voters are trying to vote? I think not. Besides a voter registration card ought to be enough. Racist fuckers.

[Gormy Cuss]

23. There are still many older low-income people without photo IDs

Especially in rural areas and the densest urban areas and in Georgia that also means there's a good chance they are disproportional African-American.

10% of adults have no driver's license. Until 9/11, most of them also would have little need for a photo ID. So while the number without photo IDs these days would be lower, there are still parts of the poorest population who don't drive, fly, or need a photo ID to cash checks.

[confludemocrat]

10. Bush has not endorsed unconditional renewal of the Voting Rights Act

That would affect key provisions that give it teeth:

"In 2007, however, three crucial sections of the Voting Rights Act will expire unless Congress votes to renew them. These include:

+A requirement that states with a documented history of discriminatory voting practices submit planned changes in their election laws or procedures to federal officials or judges for preclearance. A bipartisan Congressional report in 1982 warned that without this section, discrimination would reappear "overnight."

+Provisions that guarantee access to bilingual election materials for some Native Americans who have limited English proficiency and new citizens trying to learn the language.

+The authority to send federal examiners and observers to monitor elections."

from:http://www.aclu.org/VotingRights/VotingRights.cfm?ID=17585&c=32

[candy331]

18. There is no DMV in the GA county where I live and people must go over to

the next county which is about 20 miles away to get drivers license. Now that is fine for drivers but the elderly and the poor who don't drive will find it a burden to pay someone to take them over there and many can't and will not make the trip. They can register to vote right here in the town now but with this photo ID thing it will be a problem so I expect some to just not bother. And you can be sure the bulk will be ones that would vote Democratic.

[BooScout]

21. I live in Dekalb....

It's not as easy as it seems to get an ID or license here as it appears either. When my husband came over to the UK, we wound up going to the Hall County DMV to get his license. We had to make an appointment and wait 4 weeks for it. Further frustrating things....not all DMV's are open on a Saturday (so I wouldn't miss a day from work since he didn't have a license and couldn't drive there). If you go to a DMV in the metro Atlanta area you are just about guaranteed a days wait in a long line to get an ID. A day off of work for a poor person or a day standing in line for an elderly or disabled person can take a toll on people. Both monetarily and physically.

[Up2Late]

22. Kick n/t

:kick: