Handel defiant after feds reject Georgia voter screening
By Aaron Gould Sheinin
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Monday, June 01, 2009
As a coalition of pro-immigration groups rallied at the state Capitol on
Monday, Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel was reacting to a U.S.
Justice Department repudiation of her system of verifying citizenship of
voters.
Handel and her aides created the system in 2007 under the requirements of
the federal Help America Vote Act. The law requires states to verify a
voter's identity at the time of registration, but not necessarily to verify
citizenship. In creating the system, Handel's office extended the
verification process to include citizenship; something the Justice
Department said was "discretionary on the state's part."
But the system that was created, the federal lawyers found, was flawed and
of the 7,000 individuals flagged as potential "non-citizens," more than 50
percent were actually U.S. citizens.
Furthermore, the department found, those flagged as non-citizens were
overwhelmingly black, Asian or Hispanic.
"These burdens are real, are substantial and are retrogressive for minority
voters," Loretta King, the acting assistant attorney general for the
Justice Department's Civil Rights Division, said in a letter to the state.
The ruling bars the state from continuing the citizenship verification,
although there is some dispute as to whether the original verification for
identification can continue.
Matt Carrothers, a spokesman for Handel, said he could not respond to
King's contention that minorities were more likely to be flagged because
the department would not reveal its methodology. But, he said, there was a
significant increase in voting among African-Americans and Hispanics in
2008.
Either way, Handel was not pleased. The decision, she said, "shows a
shocking disregard for the integrity of our elections."
She said the state is investigating more than 30 cases of non-citizens
casting ballots in the state, including one Henry County woman who believed
she was eligible to vote and cast ballots in 2004 and 2006. The woman is
Jamaican and in the country legally, but is not a citizen. She reported the
vote herself.
Handel's office said she is still considering options, including suing the
Justice Department in federal court. In a post to her Twitter account
Monday morning, Handel was direct: "If they think that we're not going to
fight for this, they're wrong."
The process of verifying voters' identity and citizenship was criticized
first last fall by then-Sen. Barack Obama's presidential campaign. The
campaign asked the Justice Department to decide whether the system needed
to be pre-cleared under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, which requires
Georgia and other states to have changes to voting laws approved. A federal
lawsuit was filed and Justice agreed the rules should be reviewed. While
the state was victorious in fending off an injunction for the system, the
judge ruled that Justice should review the process.
Elise Shore, regional counsel for the Mexican-American Legal Defense and
Educational Fund, one of the groups who sued over the system, said
Justice's objection was heartening.
It "recognizes that the state of Georgia has attempted to disenfranchise
not only Latino citizens, but Asian-American and African-American citizens
as well," Shore said.
Shore was busy Monday. She responded to Justice's ruling as she stood on
the state Capitol steps for a news conference announcing a national push
for comprehensive immigration reform. The Georgia chapter of the national
Reform Immigration for America campaign called on Washington to enact a
"practical, workable solution" that's based on "the rule of law" and
"earned citizenship," said Jerry Gonzalez, president of the Georgia
Association of Latino Elected Officials.
Similar events were held in more than 30 cities Monday in advance of a
three-day campaign summit beginning Wednesday in Washington.
But the call for reform from these groups is dubious, critics said. D.A.
King, a Marietta-based illegal immigration opponent, watched the news
conference and said it was "the same old mindless propaganda. The agenda is
open borders," he said.
King also was critical of the Justice Department ruling on Handel's
verification system.
"With the present administration, I am saddened, but not surprised," King
said.
But U.S. Rep. John Lewis (D-Ga.), a veteran of the Civil Rights Movement
that spawned the Voting Rights Act, said the system of citizenship checks
was "an attempt to take us back to another dark period in our history when
people were denied access to the ballot box simply because of their race or
nationality."
¡X Staff writers Bob Keefe and Mary Lou Pickel contributed.
http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/metro/stories/2009/06/01/georgia_voter_screening_immigration.html
http://snipurl.com/jbqyr |