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Judge issues restraining order against Georgia voter identification law
CBS News/AP ^ | July 7, 2006 | Shannon McCaffrey

Posted on 07/08/2006 4:36:44 AM PDT by DumpsterDiver

Background article: Former Gov. Roy Barnes battles voter ID legislation(Georgia)

ATLANTA -- With less than two weeks to go before the July 18 primary, a judge Friday issued a restraining order blocking Georgia's voter ID law, saying that requiring photos as proof of identity is an unconstitutional burden.

Superior Court Judge Melvin Westmoreland said in a sharply worded written ruling that the Legislature doesn't have the authority to enforce the law and an amendment to the state Constitution would be required instead.

The law, he said, "unduly burdens the fundamental right to vote rather than regulate it."

The law requires that every voter who casts a ballot in person provide a valid, government-issued photo ID. The state made such IDs available throughout the state, but former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democrat, argued in court Thursday on behalf of two residents that the law would keep poor, elderly and minority voters from the polls.

Barnes said Friday he was pleased with the ruling. "I think what we heard today loud and clear is don't allow the vagaries of political partisanship to change the basic fundamental rights of our people," he said. "All this law did was create a bureaucracy and a burden to vote."

The state plans to appeal the ruling to the state Supreme Court.

"Democracy only works because people have trust in the integrity of the ballot box," said Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue, who signed the voter ID measure into law earlier this year. "I respectfully disagree with Judge Westmoreland, and believe that Georgia's law is not only constitutional, but a common sense, prudent protection of the election process."

The 17 forms of identification -- some with photos and some without -- that had been allowed in previous elections can be used at the polls for the primary, Westmoreland ruled. Voters who lack one of those IDs can also continue to attest to their identity under oath, pending further court action.

Westmoreland referred the case back to the trial judge in a case Barnes filed on behalf of two people who he said lacked the photo ID needed to vote. No further hearings were immediately scheduled.

Georgia's Republican-led Legislature first adopted a voter ID law in 2005, but a federal judge blocked its enforcement, saying it amounted to an unconstitutional poll tax. Early this year, lawmakers amended the law to make the IDs free and to ensure they are available in each of the state's 159 counties.

A separate, federal challenge to the voter ID law is also pending. Arguments in that case were scheduled for Wednesday.


TOPICS: News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: georgia; impeachjudgesnow; judiciary; votefraud; voterfraud; voterid
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To: mewzilla
How do they ensure there's no voter fraud using that system?

You must not be from Oregon! Kerry exceeded Gore's vote here by 5%, while Bush improved 2% overall. Oregon's vote-by-mail is not intended to curtail voting fraud.

21 posted on 07/08/2006 5:27:36 AM PDT by ARepublicanForAllReasons (Mass immigration and mass indoctrination of illegals is the current marxist strategy to gain power.)
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To: ARepublicanForAllReasons

>>Oregon's vote-by-mail is not intended to curtail voting fraud.

That can be said for pretty much any Dem-sponsored voting legislation. "Motor Voter" comes to mind, in particular.

A good summary of it is here:
http://russp.org/motorvoter.html


22 posted on 07/08/2006 5:41:00 AM PDT by FreedomPoster (Guns themselves are fairly robust; their chief enemies are rust and politicians) (NRA)
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To: DumpsterDiver
From the Judges Law School, 'Alumni Notes':

“John Melvin, JD '95, is currently a Prosecutor in the Gwinnett County district attorney's office and a pastor of Camp Creek Church, Lilburn, GA. He is running for superior court judge in Gwinnett County. John attended West Point from 1982-1984. During his second year at the academy, Melvin suffered a brain aneurysm. After learning to walk again, he finished his degree at the University of Georgia. Melvin states that one of his priorities as a judge would be "Justice tempered with mercy. As a prosecutor, I have spent my legal career fighting to keep the streets of Gwinnett County safe. With each new case, the consistent challenge is to temper the zealous pursuit of justice with an appropriate measure of mercy, for "there but for the grace of God go I. . . . " (Entered 7/19/04 - Ohio Northern Winter 2004)”

23 posted on 07/08/2006 5:43:31 AM PDT by johnny7 (“And what's Fonzie like? Come on Yolanda... what's Fonzie like?!”)
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To: MNJohnnie
. Another example of an out of control judge imposing their emotional whimsy on the law.

It's another example of a desperate Democrat party which knows that if it can't get the cemetery vote and the bussed in minority vote it can't win an honest election in GA. There is no reason why anyone who wants to vote can't get the ID card. But the photo ID makes it much harder to vote fraudulently, therefore the Democrats who depend on vote fraud to win elections are pulling out all the stops trying to keep the new law from being enforced. A GA driver license serves as a photo ID, and a free photo ID card is available for any eligible voter who doesn't have a driver's license. The state has made the photo ID available at no cost to anyone who asks for it. If the voter can't or won't come in to pick up the ID the state will deliver it free of charge.

I believe the GA SC will overturn the local judge's order and the ID requirement will be reinstated. Or at least I hope so, the last thing we need in GA is for the incredibly corrupt Democrats to retake control of the State Assembly and the Governor's office that they have held ever since Reconstruction until the last general election.

24 posted on 07/08/2006 5:50:09 AM PDT by epow (Life is tough, it's even tougher if you're a DUmmy. moonbat living in Mom's basement.)
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To: DumpsterDiver

Told you guys yesterday...The fix is in...The Ga Voter ID law will never take effect. The Lib courts will strike it down. A shameful society we have become...


25 posted on 07/08/2006 5:57:07 AM PDT by devane617 (It's McCain and a Rat -- Now what?)
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To: DumpsterDiver

there's only 2 weeks before the primary - but that's not such a big deal (I don't think). I can only imagine that his activist ruling will be reversed somehow before November......But what do I know. I am from Missouri


26 posted on 07/08/2006 6:02:26 AM PDT by rface ("...the most schizoid freeper I've ever seen" - New Bloomfield, Missouri)
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To: joeystoy

They just want to know where to send the bill when you hit that slice through a living room window :-)


27 posted on 07/08/2006 6:04:00 AM PDT by showme_the_Glory (No more rhyming, and I mean it! ..Anybody want a peanut.....)
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To: Springman

Here's local reporting, "Marietta Daily Journal"


"Fulton judge blocks Georgia s voter ID law
Saturday, July 8, 2006 1:29 AM EDT
By Aaron Baca
Marietta Daily Journal Staff Writer

"MARIETTA - Georgia's on-again, off-again political ping-pong battle over whether voters should be required to show state-issued identification cards at polls flared again Friday. A Fulton County Superior Court judge - with only 11 days to go before Georgia's primary elections - blocked the state from requiring voters to show photo IDs to prove who they are at polls. Judge Melvin Westmoreland issued a 30-day restraining order blocking the state's voter ID law in a lawsuit filed in Fulton by former Gov. Roy Barnes on behalf of two Georgia residents who, according to Barnes, lack the photo IDs required under the law, but are otherwise qualified to vote.


The voter ID law violates the Georgia Constitution by "placing a restrictive condition on the right of a citizen to vote," Westmoreland stated in a four-page order.
The state announced it intends to appeal the decision to the Georgia Supreme Court. In his order, Westmoreland said the voter ID law "unduly burdens the fundamental right to vote" and that the law will cause "irreparable harm."

Westmoreland referred the case back for a civil trial. No trial date has been set yet. Barnes, who said he was somewhat surprised by Westmoreland's order, said the court affirmed Constitutional provisions that guarantee all qualified Georgia residents the right to vote.

"The state cannot create a system that impedes the basic right to exercise the franchise," Barnes said during an afternoon news conference at his Marietta law office. Republicans and Democrats in the General Assembly have fought bitterly over the voter ID law for the past two years.


The law, which was passed in 2005, restricted the number of acceptable forms of identification that may be used at polls. Under the law, voters are required to present valid photo IDs. Republicans said the law was passed to prevent voter fraud.

Acceptable forms of photo ID are a Georgia voter photo ID, a U.S. passport, a Georgia driver's license, a military ID card, tribal identification or a workplace-issued ID card. As originally passed, the law would have required voters to pay for a photo ID if they did not already have one. A federal judge blocked that law, saying it amounted to an unconstitutional poll tax.

Republican leaders in the Legislature pushed an amendment through earlier this year changing the law so that free IDs would be issued to voters lacking them. As part of the amendment, the Legislature also paid for ID-making machines to be installed in all of the state's county registration offices. So far, few residents throughout the state have applied for the new voter ID cards. Only nine of the IDs had been issued in Cobb as of Friday, said Beth Kish, a Cobb voter registration manager.

Westmoreland's order means the 17 forms of identification that were previously sufficient for voters at polls will once again be acceptable July 18. Those forms of ID range from driver's licenses to utility bills. Barnes' office argued the voter ID law would keep many from voting, including the elderly, the poor and minority voters.

Barnes claims there have been no documented instances of fraud at the polls in at least 10 years. He said fraud, however, has been found in the state's absentee voting process. "It's a blatant political ploy," Barnes said, accusing Republicans of trying to place restrictions on voters at the polls but not on voters who use absentee ballots.

State Senate President Pro Tempore Eric Johnson (R-Savannah) said opinion polls show that 85 percent of Georgians support requiring photo IDs to vote. Barnes, Johnson said, "can screw up democracy better than any person I know."

Despite a planned appeal, the state likely will have to reorganize its processes once again for the upcoming primary election, said state Sen. John Wiles (R-Kennesaw).
"Now we're going to have an election without picture IDs appropriate to prove who people say they are," Wiles said.

By blocking the voter ID law, the Fulton court may weaken the public's trust in the upcoming election, Wiles said.
"If citizens don't believe the process is free of fraud, then the government loses its right to govern," Wiles said.
Wiles said allegations of absentee voter fraud have not been proven. "If they can show me there's any fraud in the absentee system, then I'll fix it," Wiles said.

Because the Fulton order was issued so close to the primary election, poll workers may become confused about how to manage elections July 18, Cobb County's Ms. Kish said. "The hard part is dealing with poll workers," Ms. Kish said.
Those workers are volunteers who work only a couple of days a year and may not be certain what rules are in effect, Ms. Kish said. "I think (the law) is clear to the people in the office, but the poll workers are confused by all this when it changes so often," Ms. Kish said."



28 posted on 07/08/2006 6:11:27 AM PDT by YaYa123
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To: DumpsterDiver

You'd think in the time it took to file a lawsuit, these two sweet little old ladies could have gotten a ride to the DMV.


29 posted on 07/08/2006 6:22:17 AM PDT by rwilson99 (Too soon... to forget. See United 93)
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To: MNJohnnie

Related....

http://exposingtheleft.blogspot.com/2006/07/judge-blocks-enforcement-of-georgias.html


30 posted on 07/08/2006 6:26:13 AM PDT by traderrob6
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To: traderrob6

Here's what comes of all this relativism. Complete nonsense.


31 posted on 07/08/2006 6:42:56 AM PDT by ClaireSolt (.)
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To: DumpsterDiver
I knew the idiots fighting this would find some tyrannical SOB on the bench to do this. I just hope the higher courts over rule this so low-life losers like Westmoreland have no say.
32 posted on 07/08/2006 6:52:08 AM PDT by NapkinUser
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To: mewzilla

"I live in NYS. We've never been asked for ID at a polling place."

Hence the reason NYS is a 'blue' state.


33 posted on 07/08/2006 6:55:42 AM PDT by Bigh4u2 (Denial is the first requirement to be a liberal)
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To: joeystoy

Heck, I have to show a photo ID to use my credit card to buy a bag of chips - are they saying a bag of chips is more important than the vote? I also have to use a photo ID to get my own money out of the bank I put it in...


34 posted on 07/08/2006 7:08:15 AM PDT by trebb ("I am the way... no one comes to the Father, but by me..." - Jesus in John 14:6 (RSV))
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To: DumpsterDiver
The Democrats can be expected to oppose anything that prevents voter fraud. You can't blame them. It's a matter of survival. That's the only way they can get elected.
35 posted on 07/08/2006 7:16:09 AM PDT by Savage Beast (9/11 was never repeated--thanks to President George Bush.)
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To: DumpsterDiver
I bet the poor and elderly are able to fill out all the forms they need to get Medicare/Medicaid cards and food stamps.

They can easiily obtain a photo a ID to vote.

36 posted on 07/08/2006 7:18:45 AM PDT by JCEccles
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To: mewzilla
I live in NYS. We've never been asked for ID at a polling place.

What measures does your state take to prevent voter fraud?

If you're not asked for ID at the time you vote, what's to prevent you from voting multiple times or voting in multiple precincts?

37 posted on 07/08/2006 9:09:41 AM PDT by upchuck (I bought a self-help tape named, "How to Handle Disappointment." I got it home & the box was empty.)
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To: upchuck

If you have lived in a community for
years, the poll watchers KNOW you on sight.
Newcomers are asked for their voter registration
cards and then checked against the books. Sometimes
they are found to be voting at the wrong place and
they are told to go where they are "on the books."
Without a voter registration card, the "unknown"
must have two people, KNOWN to the watchers, verify
their validity. Then that person is given a ballot
and allowed to vote. But the ballot is kept separate
from the drop box and counted later by itself. Plus,
the "verification" can only work ONCE.


38 posted on 07/10/2006 8:28:59 AM PDT by Grendel9 (quen)
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To: Grendel9

Sounds like a good system. Thanks for the details.


39 posted on 07/10/2006 4:37:30 PM PDT by upchuck (Be kinder than necessary, for everyone you meet is fighting some kind of battle.)
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