Posted on 07/07/2006 6:19:42 AM PDT by devane617
ATLANTA — Georgia's new photo-identification law turns back the clock on voting rights after two centuries of steady progress, former Gov. Roy Barnes charged in a Fulton County courtroom Thursday.
But a legal attempt to prevent the state from enforcing the law during this month's primaries could be in trouble because of questions surrounding the qualifications of the plaintiffs.
Barnes, a Democrat, is seeking a temporary restraining order on behalf of two clients who say they would be affected by legislation Republicans pushed through the General Assembly requiring voters to show a photo ID at the polls.
The case is one of two pending challenges to the new law. A hearing on a lawsuit in federal court is set for Wednesday in Rome.
During Thursday's hearing before Fulton Superior Court Judge Melvin Westmoreland, lawyers representing the state defended the photo-identification requirement as a way to prevent voter fraud.
But Jennifer Jordan, Barnes' co-counsel, argued that the law actually makes it easier for Georgians to vote by absentee ballot — a method that has generated many documented instances of fraud -while clamping down only on voting in person. She said Secretary of State Cathy Cox, who is now seeking the Democratic nomination for governor, hasn't documented a single instance of in-person voter fraud in nearly two terms in office.
Barnes, who lost his reelection bid to Republican Sonny Perdue in 2002, accused GOP leaders of concocting the photo-ID requirement to reduce turnout among poor, black and elderly voters, who tend to support Democratic candidates.
"I have lived by the sword of politics and, yes, I have died by the sword of politics," Barnes told the judge. "But I suggest to you there are some things we cannot and should not allow in politics.
"When you take a group of people and try to push down their ability to vote to win an election, it's wrong."
But Mark Cohen, a special assistant attorney general, said the new law does not deny any Georgian the right to vote.
He said any registered voter who does not have one of the six forms of photo ID required at the polls can vote absentee with no photo-ID requirement.
Cohen said the state has trained registrars and poll workers across Georgia in how to enforce the law, and equipment needed to produce photo IDs has been sent to elections offices in every county.
He said public service announcements are being aired on radio and TV stations to make voters aware that they will need photo IDs to vote on July 18 and where to get them.
Even with that, Cohen said only 83 photo IDs have been issued statewide since the State Election Board gave the go-ahead last week.
"There doesn't seem to be an overwhelming demand for them," he said.
Ann Lewis, another lawyer representing the state, questioned the veracity of a list Cox released recently of some 675,000 registered voters in Georgia who don't have a driver's license, the most common form of ID expected to be used to comply with the new law.
Lewis presented evidence Thursday that of the two plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed by Barnes, one has a driver's license and the other has an old but valid college ID from a public university in Florida.
"Neither of these people lacks identification to vote under this new law," Lewis said. "You'd think at least one person from this list could be identified for this case."
The state's lawyers asked Westmoreland to dismiss the lawsuit because the plaintiffs lacked legal standing to file it.
The judge said he would have a ruling today.
lemme see... a lot of folk don't seem to have a photo id in order to vote, but if this is true,. then how do they cash checks? do banking? Perform any other financial non-cash transaction?
Thats the answer, the ILLEGALS can use their ID'S in the United States.
Somehow the dum-dum Mexicans can demand a voter ID and run a clean election while the smartguy Democrats in Georgia worry that their voter base is not intelligent enough to vote. Go figure.
Those in our society that don't even have a simple photo ID shouldn't even be qualified to vote.
Democrats know they cant legally win National Elections unless they steal them. Between stealing elections and Judicial Activism America must arise to the situation and if necessary take up arms. These idiots are out to destroy America and when we vote contrary to their wishes they have it overturned. Enough is Enough!
Yep, you got it...Very Lib Courts in ATL and it would not surprise me to see the law stopped.
That said, this is an application for a TRO, and TRO law can be kinda squirrelly. We'll have to see his ruling and the basis for it before we know what's up.
Don't have an ID to vote? But DID have valid identfication to REGISTER to vote? Book em Barney.
Those in our society that don't even have a simple photo ID shouldn't even be qualified to vote
The astounding is that these folks put massive effort into this lawsuit, when they could have the state provide a free ID in just a matter of hours.
I don't know why the repubs don't lambast the Dems over this. Every double voter effectively disenfranchises another American.
Bzzzt. Shouldn't need a photo ID period if you so choose.
NY only requires a signature, which is matched at the voting booth. No photo ID needed, yet positive ID can be made.
These scumbags are doing all they can to prevent us from ever having racial harmony when they use words like this. I don't know how they can think the voter ID law is racist when other states, like here in CT, have had them for years. I have never heard a word of complaint. And except for the governorship, Dems have managed to win just about every other statewide election for the last few decades. So apparently making people show ID is not keeping Demo voting blocs from getting to the polls.
Didn't any of these legal brains a this hearing ask the 2 guys how they registered to vote? Surely they found out at that time if their ID was OK for voting. Something very stinky going on here. Did Barnes tell the hearing how the Voting Rights Act was necessary because the RATS dominated most Southern States when the rights violations occured, and DID NOT support the Act in congress?????!!!!
Wow, I didn't know we had photo-IDs back in 1806!
Mrs. randog got her purse stolen a couple of months ago. After she cancelled her credit cards, etc., she got mad and did the police's job for them and tracked down (a) who stole her purse, and (b) where they used her cards before she cancelled them. Come to find out none of the clerks even looked at the picture on the driver's license to verify that the crank whore using my wife's license did not, in fact, even resemble my wife. They just look at the name and carry on.
BTW, even though my wife found out who stole her purse (it was a dirtbag at her gym) and reported it to the police, they couldn't be bothered to arrest her, even though the gym made arrangements to have the thief show up to the gym at a certain time.
Maybe king Roy wants to come back and knows only voter fraud will get that done.
Not only should you have to have a photo ID to vote, but you should be required to dip your finger in the ink after you have voted.
I've always wondered how a person can reproduce a phony signature after going from precinct to precinct in the DNC booze bus.
i would hazard a guess that thieves don't tend to vote in large nunmbers...
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