No compromise reached on voter verification

Civil rights lawyers and state attorneys failed to agree Wednesday on a solution to make sure qualified voters whose citizenship has been mistakenly questioned can vote on Nov. 4.

A three-judge court told the lawyers to get together over lunch during a break in a day-long hearing. The judges considered claims raised in a lawsuit that seeks to halt Georgia’s attempts to verify the citizenship of voters with a statewide database.

Without a compromise, the judges instructed lawyers for both sides to propose solutions to them by mid-day Thursday.

Federal appeals court judge Stanley Birch and U.S. District Court judges Jack Camp and Bill Duffey heard the case. The judges appeared inclined to order the state to allow voters whose citizenship has been questioned to cast paper ballots on Election Day.

“There are things we can do to ensure their vote … and yet not wreak havoc in the whole system,” Birch said.

The Secretary of State’s Office has raised questions on the citizenship of 4,538 prospective voters. Most of those flagged voters are among the 550,000 Georgians who registered to vote this year.

Civil rights groups, representing a Kennesaw State University student, filed suit on Oct. 9 seeking a halt to the matching system. The groups said it amounts to a systematic purging of voter rolls that needed to be pre-cleared by the Justice Department under the Voting Rights Act.

Secretary of State Karen Handel says the system ensures the integrity of the vote and is required by law.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Christian Herren, deputy chief of the voting section of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, told the court that the system should have been pre-cleared before it was used. Since the lawsuit was filed, the state submitted the matching system to the Justice Department for pre-clearance.

Camp, chief judge of the federal court in Atlanta, tried to pin Herren down as to when the department would finish its evaluation.

“We’ll make every effort to do it before the election, but I cannot promise,” Herren answered.

Deputy attorney general Dennis Dunn proposed a solution that would allow voters whose citizenship has been questioned to cast a “challenge ballot.” Under Georgia law, a prospective voter whose eligibility has been challenged can cast a paper ballot. The local registrar would then have to resolve the challenge by the time the votes have been certified, which can take up to a week.

Laughlin McDonald, a lawyer with the ACLU Voting Rights Project, told the judges that challenged voters should be allowed to cast a simple paper ballot and sign an affidavit swearing they are a U.S. citizen. If the Justice Department fails to clear Georgia’s database matching system before Election Day, then their votes should be counted, he said.

McDonald wants the state to stop using its matching system.

“It’s not like we have a pristine system here,” McDonald said. “It’s filled with mistakes.”

The lawsuit’s plaintiff, Jose Morales, of Cherokee County became a naturalized U.S. citizen last year, yet his citizenship was questioned.

Morales registered to vote last month, but he received a letter from his local registrar saying he could not vote until he proved his citizenship.

Morales went to the elections office, presented his passport and was approved. He soon received his voter registration card in the mail.

But about a week later, he received another letter that said if he did not contact the registrar by Oct. 15 or appear at a hearing the same day, his name would be removed from the list of registered voters.

That was all a mix-up, Dunn told the court, because the office mailed out its final letter the same day Morales showed up and presented his passport. He is now cleared to vote, Dunn said.

A three-judge court on Wednesday urged state attorneys and civil rights lawyers to reach a compromise that gives qualified voters whose citizenship has been mistakenly questioned a way to vote on Nov. 4.

The judges instructed the lawyers to try and come up with a resolution before reconvening Wednesday afternoon. The court is considering a lawsuit that seeks to halt the state’s attempts to verify the citizenship of voters with a statewide database.

“There are things we can do to ensure their vote … and yet not wreak havoc in the whole system,” Judge Stanley Birch said. “It seems to me this is eminently workable.”

Birch, a judge on the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, heard arguments on the issue along with U.S. District Court judges Jack Camp and Bill Duffey.

The Secretary of State’s Office has raised questions as to the citizenship of 2,000 voters, most of whom are among 550,000 who have registered to vote in Georgia this year.

Civil rights groups, representing a Kennesaw State University student from Cherokee County, filed suit on Oct. 9 seeking a halt to the matching system. The groups said the system amounts to a systematic purging of voter rolls that needed to be pre-cleared by the U.S. Justice Department under the Voting Rights Act.

Secretary of State Karen Handel has said the matching system ensures the integrity of the vote and is required by federal law.

At Wednesday’s hearing, Christian Herren, deputy chief of the voting section of the Justice Department’s civil rights division, told the court that the system should have been pre-cleared before it was put to use.

Since the lawsuit was filed, the state has submitted the matching system to the Justice Department for pre-clearance.

Camp, chief judge of the federal court in Atlanta, tried to pin Herren down as to when the Justice Department would finish its pre-screening process.

“We’ll make every effort to do it before the election, but I cannot promise,” Herren answered.

Herren proposed a compromise that would allow any voter whose citizenship is in question to be allowed to cast a provisional, paper ballot. Then local registrars would have two to three days to make sure the voter is an actual citizen and eligible to vote.

Among the issues facing the court are how to craft an order that allows this to be carried out. Handel, the sole defendant in the lawsuit, has no direct authority over the state’s 159-county voter registrar boards, deputy attorney general Dennis Dunn told the court.

Laughlin McDonald, a lawyer with the ACLU Voting Rights Project, told the judges that challenged voters should be allowed to cast a paper ballot. If the Justice Department fails to pre-clear Georgia’s database matching system before Election Day, then their votes should be counted, he said.

McDonald said letters should be sent to all the voters whose citizenship was questioned and given these instructions.

Birch told the lawyers to come up with such a letter Wednesday.

Of the roughly 2,000 voters whose citizenship has been questioned, some voters have resolved the issue and are cleared to vote.

Such is the case of the lawsuit’s plaintiff, Jose Morales, of Cherokee County, who became a naturalized U.S. citizen in November 2007.

Morales registered to vote last month. But about two weeks later, he received a letter from his county registrar’s office saying he would not be able to vote unless he provided evidence of his citizenship.

Morales paid a visit to the county elections office, presented his passport to a clerk and was approved. On Oct. 3, he received his voter registration card in the mail. But about a week later, he received another letter from the elections office that said if he did not contact the office before Oct. 15 or appear at a hearing the same day, his name would be removed from the list of registered voters.

Morales is now cleared to vote, Dunn told the court. The mix-up occurred because the office mailed out its final letter the same day Morales showed up and presented his passport, Dunn noted.