Voting Rights Advocates Challenge Georgia Photo ID Law in Federal Court

Measure Decried as "New Poll Tax," Violates State, Federal Constitutions

Plaintiffs Illustrate Plight of Elderly, Minority and Low-Income Voters

ATLANTA – A consortium of voting rights advocates and private attorneys filed suit today in federal district court in Rome, Georgia, challenging House Bill 244, charging the law violates the state and federal constitutions, the 1965 Voting Rights Act, and the 1964 Civil Rights Act.

The measure being challenged, which was signed into law by Georgia Governor Sonny Perdue in April, reduces the various forms of identification that voters can use from 17 to six, and makes government issued photo identification absolutely required in order to vote.

The lawsuit was filed against state and local election officials and asks the federal court to declare H.B. 244 “unconstitutional, null and void,” and issue both a preliminary and permanent injunction against implementation of the law.

“House Bill 244 discriminates against minorities, the elderly, the poor, and the disabled. The $20 fee that is required to obtain a five year state ID card is an unconstitutional poll tax that violates the Twenty-Fourth Amendment,” said Neil Bradley, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union Voting Rights Project in Atlanta. In addition, lawyers for the plaintiffs say H.B. 244:

“Once again African Americans in Georgia must seek justice from the federal courts to protect us from state officials who are eager to deprive us of our fundamental right to vote,” said Walter C. Butler, President of the NAACP State Conference of Branches, which is a plaintiff in the suit.

In addition to the NAACP, other organizational plaintiffs include: Common Cause/Georgia, the League of Women Voters of Georgia; the Central Presbyterian Outreach and Advocacy Center; the Georgia Association of Black Elected Officials; the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus and; Concerned Black Clergy of Metropolitan Atlanta. Other groups that are providing legal counsel to the effort include the ACLU, AARP, Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund (MALDEF) and the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund. The lawsuit also was filed on behalf two individual voters: Mr. Tony Watkins, a black resident of Rome, and Mrs. Clara Williams, a black resident of Fulton County. Each of the individual plaintiffs is legally registered and qualified to vote, but does not possess a Georgia driver’s license, passport or other form of photo ID specified in H.B. 244.

"It is ironic that the leading Supreme Court decision striking down the poll tax overruled an earlier decision involving Georgia's poll tax (Breedlove v. Suttles). Too many Georgia officials unfortunately seem unfamiliar with this history," said Ted Shaw, Director-Counsel for the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in New York. Shaw pointed out that the 1966 ruling banning poll taxes "made it clear that the affluence of the voter" could not be an "electoral standard."

Voting rights advocates decided to bring the lawsuit after the U.S. Department of Justice granted preclearance to the measure on August 26. Because of Georgia’s history of voting discrimination, the 1965 Voting Rights Act requires that any changes to election laws or voting procedures receive clearance from federal officials before going into effect. “This broad-based group of plaintiffs has taken on the task to ensure that this discriminatory law is struck down after the Department of Justice failed to do its job,” stated Jon Greenbaum, Director of Voting Rights Project of the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law in Washington, D.C.

In addition to its constitutional and legal claims, the lawsuit contends that the stated purpose of Georgia’s photo ID requirement – to deter voter fraud – was a pretext “intended to conceal the true purpose of the amendment, which was, and is to suppress voting by the poor, the elderly, the infirm, African-American, Hispanic and other minority voters by increasing the difficulty of voting.”

“Fraudulent voting already is prohibited as a crime and is severely punished under Georgia law,” explained Tisha Tallman, Southeast Regional Counsel for MALDEF in Atlanta, and one of the attorneys helping bring the suit. “There was no need for H.B. 244, except to suppress voting among those elderly, low income, minority and disabled Georgians who lack birth certificates and other costly paperwork that will be required for them to obtain state-issued ID cards. The case against H.B. 244 is strong and we fully intend to prevail in court,” she said.

According to voting rights experts, a majority of 30 states do not require registered voters to present any form of identification as a condition of voting, while a minority of 20 states require voters to present some form of ID. Of these 20, only two (Georgia and Indiana) require voters to present a photo ID as the sole method of identification in order to vote.

“ Georgia now has the most draconian voter identification requirement in the nation," said Neil Bradley of the ACLU. “ By striking down H.B. 244, this lawsuit will protect the fundamental right to vote and bring Georgia back into the mainstream."

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Download an copy of the lawsuit and a three-page fact sheet.

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