ACLU alleges Georgia hiked fee for voter ID cards

The governor’s office insisted it notified the department of the change and will waive all fees for poor residents.

Laughlin McDonald, director of the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project in Atlanta, complained of the fee hike in a letter to John Tanner, chief of the Justice Department’s voting section.

McDonald said state officials are selling five-year ID cards for $20 and 10-year cards for $35, even though the Justice Department had only approved a $10 fee for four-year cards.

“The more expensive it is, the more of a burden it gets to be,” McDonald told The Associated Press.

Dan McLagan, spokesman for Georgia Gov. Sonny Perdue, said the state included a copy of the proposed fee increase in a package of documents it sent the Justice Department to win approval of the new state law requiring a driver’s license or another form of state-issued photo ID at the polls.

The changes, which took effect July 1, also provide for a $5 discount for phone and Internet orders for ID cards and remove the fee for the poorest residents, McLagan said. However, McDonald said prospective voters have to go through an “elaborate procedure” to get the fee waived.

Justice Department spokesman Eric Holland said the department hadn’t received the ACLU letter but would carefully review the contents once it does.

The letter marks the first shot in what could be a long legal battle over Georgia’s new voter ID law. The Republican-backed measure sparked racial tensions during the legislative session last spring. Most of Georgia’s black lawmakers walked out at the state Capitol when it was approved.

Under the 1965 Voting Rights Act, Georgia and other states with a history of racial discrimination must get federal approval to change their voting laws. U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales cleared the Georgia law a week ago, but in the decision Tanner wrote the action doesn’t preclude lawsuits.

McDonald said it’s possible the ACLU could be involved in one if the Justice Department doesn’t reconsider.

“The Department of Justice ought to let them know they’ll be sued if this continues,” he said. “Poor citizens should be spared the burden of litigation, but that plainly is an option should all else fail.”

McDonald said Georgia officials have sent a bus around the state to sign up new voters, and some of them called the ACLU complaining of the cost increase.