E-Vote: Georgia Secretary of State Responds to Efforts to Block Verification of Voter Eligibility

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Oct 10, 2008, News Report

Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel issued the following statement regarding a lawsuit filed in the United States District Court to prevent the Secretary of State from verifying the eligibility of voter registration applicants:

"On the same day that activist organizations filed a lawsuit in Georgia to prevent our state from verifying the eligibility of applicants to register and vote in our November 4 General Election, a federal judge has ruled that the Ohio Secretary of State must follow federal law and implement the exact same verification procedures.

"In fact, U.S. District Judge George C. Smith of Ohio stated, "It is hard to imagine a public interest more compelling than safeguarding the legitimacy of the election of the president of the United States."

"The lawsuit filed in Georgia appears to be an orchestrated and well organized effort to dismantle our state's identification laws and verification process. The safeguards we have in place help to ensure that only those applicants and voters who meet all eligibility factors are permitted to cast a ballot in our elections. Unfortunately, the organizations appear to want to open the door to allow non-citizens to register and vote in the General Election. If the plaintiff prevails, thousands of non-citizens in Georgia could be allowed to vote.

"The Georgia Secretary of State's office and Georgia's county registrars and election officials have an obligation to ensure that only U.S. citizens and Georgians who meet all the eligibility factors are allowed to register and vote. The process to verify an applicants' eligibility to register and vote is required by federal law, and we have followed the law.

"Georgia's county election officials still have over 100,000 voter registration applications to process. My office will continue its close work with our state's county election officials to ensure that all applications are processed and verified, and that all preparations are in place for Election Day.

"I have a sworn duty to protect the integrity and security of our state's elections, and will fight any attempt to breach Georgians' trust in our electoral process."

Comments

By Carol on Oct 16, 2008

I have been under the impression that not only does a person have to show valid ID such as state issued drivers license, or SS # but also must prove to be a citizen of the US be it by birth or naturalized.

By Anonymous on Oct 14, 2008

The Georgia voter registration application form is online at: http://sos.georgia.gov/elections/voter_registration/GA%20VOTER%20REGISTRATION%20%20APP(Fill_2007).pdf It says to register, citizens must have a driver's license, state-issued ID card, or Social Security number. If the prospective voter does not have any of those, "a unique identifier will be provided."

By Ladyingreen on Oct 13, 2008

This article like many in Government Technology is too short on detail. I would like to know specifically what will be requested of voters to prove their eligilbility to vote. A voters registration card sent in the mail at the time of registration should be adequate. I am concerned about the growning challenges and charges about our national voting system and at this point I would not trust any partisan official to address the reality and validity of the issues.

By Fred on Oct 13, 2008

I've been watching the media's coverage of massive duplicate and bogus voter registration forms. It struck me that what the activist organization was attempting was the physical world equivalent of a DOS attack on a web site. It appeared as if the goal was to shut down any sort of verification of voter registration data. But I thought that was just my over active paranoid imagination. Now I see that other groups are attempting to use the courts to disable any sort of voter registration verification process. If these groups are successful, I am beginning to fear for the future of the democracy. Mob rule may become the normal state of government in the United States.

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