« LA Times: 'Man Arrested in Voter Fraud.' It's A Republican! | seashell's Blog | Barry Goldwater's granddaughter votes in Atlanta--for Barack Obama »
DOJ to Georgia: State is Violating Voting Rights Act
In another thread, bslev wished for a website where he could discuss violations of the VRA. I don't have a website, but I spent time last night tracking down Georgia's troubles with the Dept. of Justice and the Social Security Administration.
Karen Handel (R) is the Secretary of State in charge of elections. Her zealousness for guarding the citizens of Georgia from Voting Fraud has triggered over two million voter verifications to the SSA database since October 2007. Under HAVA (2002), the state and SSA have an agreement for checking new voter verifications if the voter can't produce a state issued ID. So it is understandable that the SSA sent a somewhat peevish letter to Ms. Handel on Oct. 3rd. This is the main substance of the letter:
Then on October 8th, the DOJ sent their letter to the GA Attorney General after consultation with the SSA and officials in the SOS office. The letter outlined the activities done by the state and determined that they come under Section 5 of the VRA, which requires either judicial review by the US District Court for the District of Columbia or administrative review by the US Attorney General
The activities outlined in the letter include:
Then the next day, Oct. 9, Jose Morales filed a lawsuit against Karen Handel for trying to repeatedly deny his right to vote. A US citizen since Nov. 2007, Morales registered to vote in September 2008 and received his first letter from the couinty where he lives two weeks later, saying he would not be able to vote unless he came to the Elections center with his proof of citizenship. The letter also warned that if he did not comply with this requirement, he would no longer be registered to vote.
Morales went to the office and showed the clerk his passport and received his voters registration card two weeks later on Oct 3. And then five days later, he received another letter saying that he might not be a US citizen and he should contact the Elections office by October 15th or show up for a hearing on the same day, or his name would be struck from the voter rolls.
As of Friday, Oct. 10, Handel's office had asked counties to check the status of 2,675 individuals statewide whose driver's license records indicated they were not citizens, but who had registered to vote, according to Handel's office.
Karen Handel insists that she is only following HAVA and is fighting all attempts to stop her voter checking. She had told the GOP during the September convention that it was a myth that there was a surge of new voters for Barack Obama. However, there are 406,000 new voters in GA this year and a record amount of people taking advantage of early voting, and they have given Obama a 6 point advantage according to SurveyUSA. of The rest of the story can be found here along with links to related articles.
Karen Handel (R) is the Secretary of State in charge of elections. Her zealousness for guarding the citizens of Georgia from Voting Fraud has triggered over two million voter verifications to the SSA database since October 2007. Under HAVA (2002), the state and SSA have an agreement for checking new voter verifications if the voter can't produce a state issued ID. So it is understandable that the SSA sent a somewhat peevish letter to Ms. Handel on Oct. 3rd. This is the main substance of the letter:
Under the Help America Vote Act of 2002, we have an agreement with your State to assist in verifying newly-registered voters. Consistent with this statute, part of this agreement requires us to verify the last 4 digits of the Social Security numbers of individuals who do not have an acceptable State-issued identification, such as a valid driver's license.
Since October 1, 2007, however, we have received nearly two million requests for verification from your State. Such a volume appears to be much greater than one would expect, given that States of comparable or larger populations have a significantly lower number of verification requests.
I ask that you look into this matter to ensure that your election officials are verifying only those newly-registered voters who do not have suitable State-issued identification. If your State's election officials are requesting verifications not covered by the verification agreement, we ask that you bring your procedures into conformance with your legal obligations.
Then on October 8th, the DOJ sent their letter to the GA Attorney General after consultation with the SSA and officials in the SOS office. The letter outlined the activities done by the state and determined that they come under Section 5 of the VRA, which requires either judicial review by the US District Court for the District of Columbia or administrative review by the US Attorney General
The activities outlined in the letter include:
...revisions to voter registration applications; a process of attempting to verify voter registration information against databases maintained by both the Georgia Department of Driver's Services and the federal Social Security Administration (SSA); generating and distributing reports of the results of those checks to county registrars for further action; and issuing a series of guidance memoranda from the Office of the Secretary of State to the counties concerning a number of aspects of the identity verification/voter registration processes.
Then the next day, Oct. 9, Jose Morales filed a lawsuit against Karen Handel for trying to repeatedly deny his right to vote. A US citizen since Nov. 2007, Morales registered to vote in September 2008 and received his first letter from the couinty where he lives two weeks later, saying he would not be able to vote unless he came to the Elections center with his proof of citizenship. The letter also warned that if he did not comply with this requirement, he would no longer be registered to vote.
Morales went to the office and showed the clerk his passport and received his voters registration card two weeks later on Oct 3. And then five days later, he received another letter saying that he might not be a US citizen and he should contact the Elections office by October 15th or show up for a hearing on the same day, or his name would be struck from the voter rolls.
As of Friday, Oct. 10, Handel's office had asked counties to check the status of 2,675 individuals statewide whose driver's license records indicated they were not citizens, but who had registered to vote, according to Handel's office.
Karen Handel insists that she is only following HAVA and is fighting all attempts to stop her voter checking. She had told the GOP during the September convention that it was a myth that there was a surge of new voters for Barack Obama. However, there are 406,000 new voters in GA this year and a record amount of people taking advantage of early voting, and they have given Obama a 6 point advantage according to SurveyUSA. of The rest of the story can be found here along with links to related articles.
Advertisement
As of Friday, Oct. 10, **Handel's office had asked counties to check the status of 2,675 individuals statewide whose driver's license records indicated they were not citizens, but who had registered to vote,** according to Handel's office.
Statistically absurd. Republican Handel is kissing the GOP's ring -- or whatever.
October 21, 2008 2:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Thanks for posting this. Rec'd.
In another life I would be a Civil/Voting Rights Attorney at Justice....
October 22, 2008 12:00 AM | Reply | Permalink
Thank you. And, in another life, I'd be at the desk next to you at the DOJ.
October 22, 2008 12:40 AM | Reply | Permalink
Great work.
October 22, 2008 1:40 AM | Reply | Permalink