Two jailed DeKalb residents file voting rights lawsuit

By BILL RANKIN

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Two DeKalb County residents on Tuesday filed a federal lawsuit contending they were illegally denied the right to vote last November because they were refused absentee ballots at the county jail.

Hassan Swann and David A. Hartfield could not get their ballots, the lawsuit said. A Georgia law, at least a decade old, prohibits absentee ballots from being sent to an address other than a citizen’s permanent address, except in cases when the voter is out of the county on Election Day. The suit seeks to have the law declared unconstitutional.

“Because of an arcane and unconstitutional statute, our clients were wrongfully robbed of participating in this last historic presidential election,” Nancy Abudu of the ACLU Voting Rights Project said. “It’s both absurd and unfair that nothing would have prevented our clients from voting had they been incarcerated in jails outside the county of their residence.”

Secretary of State Karen Handel declined comment because her office had yet to be served with the suit, a spokesman said.

According to the lawsuit, prior to the November election, DeKalb jailers organized voter registration drives, encouraging detainees to apply for absentee ballots. At the time, Hartfield was being held at the jail for a probation violation. Swann was jailed on a misdemeanor DUI conviction. They were not convicted of a felony, which would have made them ineligible to vote.

Swann and Hartfield were among those who applied. But they never received their ballots, the suit said.

“It’s especially disturbing to me that my vote was taken away because I was jailed in my hometown,” Swann said in a statement. “I regret that I had a DUI, but that offense didn’t take away my right to vote and wouldn’t have if I had been jailed on the other side of the state.”