Republicans in Georgia went way too far earlier this year with a new “voter-identification law” that forces Georgians without driver’s licenses (disproportionately poor, black and elderly) to pay up to $35 for a state ID card. The city of Atlanta, with a large African-American population, did not have a single facility where the cards are sold. Republicans passed the law anyway and Bush’s Justice Department approved it, saying that it is consistent with federal civil rights laws.
Fortunately, a federal judge yesterday said otherwise.
A federal judge yesterday blocked Georgia from enforcing a new state law requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls.
In issuing the preliminary injunction, U.S. District Judge Harold Murphy said the law amounts to an unconstitutional poll tax because the state is not doing enough to make identification cards available to those who cannot afford them.
The requirement “is most likely to prevent Georgia’s elderly, poor and African-American voters from voting,” Judge Murphy wrote. “For those citizens, the character and magnitude of their injury — the loss of their right to vote — is undeniably demoralizing and extreme.”
Damn straight. If there’s any justice, Georgia will drop its appeals and repeal this ridiculous law.
To be fair, I’ll gladly acknowledge that Georgia has had a problem with voter fraud, which this effort was geared to prevent. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. According to Georgia’s secretary of state, Cathy Cox, in recent years there have been no documented cases of fraud through voter impersonation. There have been problems with absentee ballots, but forcing poor people to drop $35 on a state ID won’t address that. In fact, this law loosened antifraud protections that apply to absentee ballots.
A New York Times editorial cut through the nonsense.
Clearly, Georgia Republicans supported the law because they believed that making it harder for blacks and poor people to vote would help their electoral chances. […]
In the civil rights era, Southern states had to be told again and again by federal courts not to try to stop their black citizens from voting. It is shameful that in 2005, Georgia needs to be told again.
It turns out yesterday’s ruling wasn’t convincing enough. State Sen. Don Balfour (R) said, “We’ll appeal it until the Supreme Court makes a decision. Hopefully, by then the president will have a good conservative court up there that understands the will of the people.”
The mind reels.