NEWNAN — The state of Georgia on Friday vigorously defended its system of checking voters’ identity and citizenship, saying it’s necessary to ensure the the integrity of the upcoming election.

The state made its case to a federal judge who heard three hours of arguments on a challenge from civil rights groups who want the process stopped immediately. But U.S. District Court Judge Jack Camp, calling the issue “complicated,” did not issue an immediate ruling.

The hearing came the day after the groups sued Secretary of State Karen Handel on behalf of a Cherokee County man.

Alternately testy and jovial, Camp peppered lawyers with pointed questions about the mandates of three federal election laws: the Voting Rights Act of 1965, the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and the Help America Vote Act of 2002.

Camp approved one request of the lawsuit. He said in a order signed late Friday that the suit was not without merit. He forwarded the plaintiff’s request that a three-judge panel be appointed to hear the case.

During the hearing, Camp offered a possible compromise that would have allowed the verification system to proceed. The plaintiff’s attorney, however, said the remedy did not go far enough.

Georgia Deputy Attorney General Dennis Dunn represented Handel and argued that the state is following the will of Congress in comparing information provided on voter registration forms against data in the Department of Driver Services’ system.

Dunn said the comparison helps ensure the integrity of the country’s ballot boxes.

“It’s about the faith and confidence people need to have in the election system,” Dunn said. “Congress told us to do this. We didn’t make it up.”

But Democrats and civil rights groups fear that legitimate voters are being illegally removed from voting lists just weeks before a presidential election.

After the hearing, outside the courthouse, Handel said she was following the advice of the state Attorney General’s Office and the requirements of federal election laws.

“We are simply following the law,” she said. “I think we can all agree that no non-citizens should get on the voter rolls.”

Handel later also said there seemed to be some confusion in the courtroom. No voters are being purged because of these checks, she said. The people being flagged, and possibly removed from voter lists, were not yet registered. They had filled out applications, but are not considered registered until after they are verified.

“They were simply not removed. They were never registered,” Handel said.

The plaintiff’s attorney, Elise Shore of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, told Camp the state’s verification process must be pre-cleared by the U.S. Department of Justice under Section V of the Voting Rights Act.

“It’s part of a voting change that needs to be presented to and pre-cleared by the Department of Justice,” Shore said.

The Justice Department on Wednesday said in a letter to Attorney General Thurbert Baker that it believed pre-clearance was necessary.

Dunn disagreed, although he said his office will respond to the Justice Department’s request.

Dunn said the state must inquire whether a person registering to vote is a U.S. citizen. The Help America Vote Act also requires the state to maintain a computer database to verify the accuracy of information provided during registration.

When a voter submits a registration application, the information is entered into the statewide database. Each night, the information is compared against Driver Services’ information. It can also be compared against the Social Security Administration system.

Registrars are notified when there are discrepancies. Flags appear when matches cannot be found with a person’s first or last name, date of birth, driver’s license number, last four digits of Social Security Numbers or status of citizenship.

This is what the state has been doing, Dunn said. “It’s everything you would expect a voter registrar to do,” he said. But Camp questioned whether these inquiries, which demand flagged voters to show proof of citizenship or appear at a hearing, were unnecessarily intimidating.

The lawsuit was filed on behalf of Jose Morales from Cherokee County. Morales, 29, became a U.S. citizen in November 2007. He registered to vote last month, but two weeks later he received a letter from the county election office saying he would not be able to vote unless he provided proof of his citizenship. Morales drove to the election office, presented his passport and soon received his voter registration card in the mail.

But on Tuesday, Morales received another letter from the election office indicating once again he might not be eligible to vote. The letter warned Morales, a Kennesaw State University student, that if he did not contact the office by Oct. 15 or appear for a hearing on the same day, he would not be allowed to vote, the lawsuit said.

Dunn told Camp he thinks he knows why Morales was notified the first time. After 2005, anyone trying to get a Georgia driver’s license had to declare whether they were a U.S. citizen. If they were not, they had to provide proof they were a legal alien, Dunn said. After Morales became a citizen, he probably did not go back and tell the Department of Driver Services of his new status.

For this reason, the state database showed he was still not a citizen and triggered the initial inquiry, Dunn said.

Camp then asked why Morales kept getting notifications, even after he got his voter’s card.

“I’d like to give your honor an explanation,” Dunn replied. “I don’t know the answer.”