Voting Rights Under the Gold Dome

So, I dropped my work and headed over to the Gold Dome for a subcommittee hearing on voting rights legislation, in opposition to the latest poll tax requirement to add to GA's voter registration. But my efforts were to no avail. Even after taking time out of my day to go down to the Capitol to testify on behalf of the Peoples' Agenda .. as did reps from four other organizations as well, there was NO public testimony allowed. Typical Georgia democracy in action.

HB 139 would require anyone registering to vote to provide proof of citizenship before being added to the rolls. Never mind that non-citizens are NOT voting and there is no proof that the SOS office could present of even ONE case of such. Never mind that a person must sign an affidavit under threat of perjury (a felony) that s/he is a citizen both at voter registration and EACH time s/he votes. Never mind that obtaining a copy of a birth certificate costs money, time and inconvenience. Never mind that poor people, older people, and many more will likely be more adversely affected by this requirement. Putting up a significant barrier to voter registration in the name of "fraud protection" and passing it like a country club with the partisan Secretary of State's office and Republican legislators in lockstep seems to be a way of life in the state of Georgia. Despite the sponsoring legislator's concern that they do not want any more voting rights litigation, we'll definitely be bringing this to the attention of the DOJ Voting Rights Section if they are foolish enough to try to pass it. Even though similar legislation was approved for Arizona, we'll be looking forward to reversing some more bad precedent from the Bush Administration DOJ if it comes to that....

There was a bit of good of news though on two other items of legislation. Bipartisan legislation was passed out of the subcommittee - without any public comment either - on (i) adding photo IDs from private colleges and universities to the requirements for voting (HB 209) and (ii) providing for the availability precinct level voting data for the early/advanced voting period.