Voter, civil rights groups challenge photo ID law

The suit was filed the same day a commission co-chaired by former President Carter, a Georgia native, recommended a national requirement that voters show photo IDs.

Opponents of photo IDs for voters say such requirements would disenfranchise minorities and the poor; backers say they’re a good way to combat voter fraud.

“Photographic identification as a requirement for voting is antidemocratic and prevents people from exercising their fundamental right to vote whether proposed by the General Assembly of the state of Georgia or the Carter-Baker commission,” said Daniel Levitas of the American Civil Liberties Union’s voting rights project.

Plaintiffs in the suit — including Common Cause, the League of Women Voters, the Georgia Legislative Black Caucus and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People — contend the law violates the state and federal constitutions.

The law eliminates formerly accepted forms of voter identification, such as Social Security cards, birth certificates or utility bills.

Several groups filed objections with the Justice Department before it approved the law last month. Under the Voting Rights Act, Georgia and other states with a history of suppressing minority voting must get federal permission to change their voting laws.

The Republican-backed measure sparked racial tension during the state’s legislative session last spring. Most of Georgia’s black lawmakers walked out at the state Capitol when it was approved.

Democrats argued the idea was a political move by the GOP to depress voting among minorities, the elderly and the poor — all traditional bases for Democrats.

Dan McLagan, a spokesman for Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue, said the law is intended to deter voter fraud.

“Requiring an ID to vote is common sense and has been instituted in other states,” he said. “Under the old system, you could pluck a utility bill out of somebody’s trash can and cast a vote.”

Nineteen states require voters to show identification, but only five request photo ID, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Those states — Arizona, Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina and South Dakota — allow voters without a photo ID to use other forms of ID or sign an affidavit of identity.

Carter, who chaired an election reform commission along with former Secretary of State James Baker, said in Washington Monday that requiring photo IDs was one of the most important and most difficult of his group’s recommendations.

“We addressed this with a great deal of hesitancy,” he said, adding that a national approach would prevent states from enacting laws that are discriminatory.