Georgia info on voter law deemed insufficient

The U.S. Justice Department says it needs more information on Georgia’s voter registration verification process before it can decide whether it complies with the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

In a Dec. 15 letter to the state Attorney General’s Office, Christopher Coates, chief of the voting section in the Civil Rights Division, said information provided so far by the state was insufficient.

In October, voting rights groups filed suit against the state’s method of verifying a prospective voter’s citizenship on a statewide database. The groups claimed it amounted to an illegal, systematic purging of eligible voters shortly before the Nov. 4 elections. The state said the process was needed to ensure that only eligible voters took part in the election.

On Oct. 27, a three-judge court in Atlanta allowed any voters flagged by the process to vote by a “challenged ballot,” if necessary. But the court also found the state should have obtained Justice Department approval before using the new procedures.

Under the Voting Rights Act, the Justice Department must determine whether the changes do not have the effect of denying or abridging the right to vote on account of race, color or membership in a minority group.

Coates asked for 18 categories of information, including whether the state held public hearings on the system, what the state did to ensure there were uniform procedures to handle “flagged” voters and an explanation of the state’s efforts to get views of the public, including the minority community. Coates said that once the Justice Department has all the information it needs, it will make its decision within 60 days.