The Georgia Democratic Party lost its battle to prevent the state from enforcing a highly restrictive voter ID law in tomorrow's primary elections. But the party should keep up the fight. Little is more sacred in a representative democracy than the right to vote.

On Friday, Fulton County Judge Tom Campbell declined to issue a temporary restraining order, which would have nullified the requirement for a state-sponsored photo ID —- at least temporarily. Secretary of State Karen Handel had argued that there would be "mass chaos" at the polls if the law were not enforced.

That's highly unlikely. Handel, a Republican, is merely repeating the party line. The law was pushed through by the GOP-dominated Georgia Legislature.

State Democrats are charging that the law violates the Georgia constitution. Although the U.S. Supreme Court unwisely validated a restrictive Indiana voter ID law, Justice John Paul Stevens, writing for the majority, held that state parties have standing to file lawsuits against the requirement, instituted by GOP-dominated legislatures around the country.

Stevens and his colleagues caved in to a spurious conventional wisdom that asserts an epidemic of fake voters, although there is virtually no evidence that such voters exist. While voter fraud has certainly not been stamped out, it's usually carried out through absentee ballots. But state laws mandating a photo ID are designed to stop people from showing up at the polls and posing as someone else, a form of fraud about as likely as contact with intelligent extraterrestrials.

The real reason that many Republican-dominated state legislatures rushed to adopt restrictive voter ID statutes is obvious: Those most likely to be turned away at the ballot box —- poor and elderly voters without driver's licenses —- tend to vote for Democrats.

In fact, elderly nuns who attempted to vote in a Democratic primary in South Bend in May were turned away from the polls because they lacked photo ID. The nuns, who don't drive and live in a convent, went to cast their ballots on the second floor of their building. Even though several poll workers, including other nuns, knew them, they were nevertheless barred from voting.

Perhaps the Georgia Supreme Court will have the wisdom to stand up squarely for an unfettered franchise.

—- Cynthia Tucker, for the editorial board (cynthia@ajc.com)