The Department of Justice has concluded that Georgia’s “voter verification process” erroneously target legal citizens of the United States [minorities] who are registering to vote and is thereby “seriously flawed.”  The state of Georgia contends that its “voter verification process” was developed and is now employed in compliance with the Help America Vote Act, HAVA.  DOJ disagrees.  In fact, DOJ explains in its opinion letter that HAVA pertains to “voter identification” and not “voter eligibility” thus making Georgia’s interpretation and implementation of its “citizenship verification process” in noncompliance with the Act.

In addition, DOJ elucidated in it’s opinion letter, “applicants who are Hispanic, Asian, or African American are more likely than white applicants, to statistically significant degrees, to be flagged for additional scrutiny” through the “verification process.” The investigation further revealed that ”African Americans comprised a majority of the registrants flagged…”  For example, May 2008 through March 2009 African-Americans and whites registered to vote in equal numbers yet sixty percent more African-Americans than whites were flagged for further inquiry and were required to take an additional step/steps to complete their voter registration.  Hispanics and Asians were twice as likely to be flagged than whites.  According to DOJ, the “verification process” imposes extra steps on minority registrants thus putting an undue burden on such voters and thereby must be discontinued by the state of Georgia. 

Unbelievable!

Representative John Lewis released the following statements regarding DOJ’s decision:

I agree with the Department of Justice,” said Rep. John Lewis.  “The citizenship verification process of the state of Georgia violates both the spirit and the letter of Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act.  This was an attempt to take us back to another dark period in our history when people were denied access to the ballot box simply because of their race or nationality.  It seemed to me then and it is clear to me now that this was a “modern-day” poll tax as one judge put it, designed to harass and intimidate minority voters. 

The DOJ has made a fair and accurate decision. I hope that this decision helps the Supreme Court Justices see the importance of Section 5 in protecting the right to vote for some citizens.  Without the ability to challenge this process through the Voting Rights Act, tens of thousands of Georgia voters would be denied the right to vote.  The burden would be placed on average working citizens to file a lawsuit and prove that the Georgia system is discriminatory. This could take years.  In the meantime, injustice would be the law of the land

See full DOJ letter here