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AJC.com > Legislature > Blog > Archives > 2006 > January > 24 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USSenate OKs new voter ID bill
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Georgia lawmakers on Tuesday once again approved a bill requiring voters to show a form of government-issued photo identification at the polls, a measure that has become the most politically and racially charged issue before the General Assembly and has garnered national attention.
The state Senate voted 32-22 in favor of the bill on mostly partisan lines, despite the protests of many Democrats who complained that the bill would not effectively combat voter fraud and would disenfranchise poor, black and elderly voters.
Republican leaders said that they had listened to those concerns and have worked to make the new voter ID bill a better piece of legislation. They also said they are confident that the measure will withstand any legal challenges.
Last year, the General Assembly approved and Gov. Sonny Perdue signed a bill requiring government-issued photo identification for voters. But in October, U.S. District Judge Harold temporarily suspended law, saying it would be an unconstitutional poll tax and would not effectively combat voter fraud.
Senate Majority Leader Tommie Williams (R-Lyons) called Murphy a “hand-picked� judge and said that Senate Bill 84 now addresses Murphy’s concerns. Two weeks ago, the House approved the measure with changes that require the state to provide voter education, issue free voter identification cards, and to make the voter cards available in every county in Georgia.
“We listened to the judge, we listened to your judge,� Williams said. “We have passed this bill, which makes it free, makes it available in 159 counties, and we’re educating the public.�
The bill now goes back to the House, because the Senate approved another change to the bill that makes the free Georgia voter identification card available only to registered voters. In addition, voters must show some evidence that they are registered to vote in the state when they ask for a free card.
The debate Tuesday lasted for nearly than six hours, and was often emotional and tense.
Several Republican leaders vociferously refuting accusations that the voter ID bill was a racially motivated attempt to suppress voting by African-Americans and other minorities. “
Why should I accept that a system designed to verify identity through the use of photo ID, has a disparate impact on the minority community?� asked Sen. Preston Smith (R-Rome). “This is the soft bigotry of low expectations. We should not accept that minority citizens are somehow less capable of obtaining a photo ID than others.�
GOP leaders also argued that the measure would be an effective tool in battling voter fraud and protecting fair elections.
“Isn’t it our responsibility, ladies and gentlemen of the Senate, isn’t it our responsibility to minimize the potential for fraud?â€? asked Cecil Staton (R-Macon), the bill’s sponsor. “Isn’t that our job? This bill, for me, is not so much about the past. It’s about the future. It’s about protecting one person, one vote.â€?
But Democrats rattled off a long-list of concerns with the photo identification provision. They filed about a dozen amendments to SB 84, none of which passed. Senate Minority Leader (D-Macon), along with several Democrats, said that the the bill would not effectively fight voter fraud.
“This has nothing to do with fraud,� said Senate Minority Leader Robert Brown (D-Macon). “If we were really interested in fraud we’d be focused on absentee ballots, because that’s where examples of fraud exist.�
In the visitor’s gallery, several consumer advocates who have opposed the legislation watched the debate closely.
“”The fact that SB 84 does not address or impose a photo ID requirement on the two areas in which there have been substantial evidence of both actual and potential voter fraud — registration and absentee ballots — belies the sponsors’ premise,â€? said Bill Brown, communications director for the AARP of Georgia.
Sen. Vincent Fort (D-Atlanta) said that the bill was an attempt by Republicans to maintain power. “It’s about keeping people who tend to vote Democratic from the polls,� Fort said.
Sen. Regina Thomas (D-Savannah) said that Senate Bill 84 was “an unfunded mandate.� She asked GOP leaders how counties would handle the extra work of dispensing the voter photo identification cards. A move by Democrats to scuttle the bill – at least temporarily – because it did not have a fiscal note failed.
The state Senate approved SB 84 last year, but the photo identification provision was rolled into another piece of legislation, House Bill 244. That bill cleared both chambers, was signed into law by Gov. Sonny Perdue, and was approved by the U.S. Justice Department approved the law, as required by the Voting Rights Act.
The issue heated up again in the fall when an internal Justice Department memo leaked to the Washington Post revealed that the staff members who reviewed Georgia’s law recommended against approval, but were overruled by the GOP-appointed leadership of the department.
This year, Republican leaders in both the House and Senate declared that passing a voter identification bill that can withstand judicial scrutiny is a top priority.
But Neil Bradley, a lawyer with the ACLU’s voting rights project who is one of several lawyers who filed suit against the 2005 legislation, expressed certainty Tuesday that the new legislation will be challenged in court.
“It’s a cosmetic change that does not alter the fundamental problem that Georgia will now continue to insist on photo IDs and the failure to have one on Election Day will deny you the right to vote,â€? Bradley said.
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