The state of Georgia has said it will continue to distribute inaccurate voter registration forms, which falsely say registrants are required to enclose documentary proof of residence, until next year at earliest, public broadcaster WABE reported Monday.
On the incorrect form, first-time registrants are instructed to “enclose a copy of one of the following”: “A copy of a current and valid photo ID, a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck, or other government document that shows your name and address.”
However, according to the ACLU of Georgia, that’s not required.
“By putting in this false requirement, you’re actually preventing people from registering to vote,” Sean Young, legal director of the ACLU of Georgia, told WABE. Young said Georgia has been using the inaccurate forms for at least a decade, the station noted.
First time voters can instead bring proof of residence with them to the polls, rather than including it with their registration, WABE reported.
A new form posted online recently by the Georgia Secretary of State’s office, in response to an ACLU complaint, states: “If you are submitting this form by mail and you are registering for the first time in Georgia, you are required to submit proof of residence either with this form OR when you vote for the first time.”
But, per WABE, staff in the Secretary of State’s office said it “wouldn’t get a delivery of the revised forms until at least the beginning of next year.”
Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp, a Republican, is running for governor this year against Democrat Stacey Abrams.
Read WABE’s full report here.
Kemp’s excuse as Secretary of State was that he wanted to save money by not having new forms printed until the state ran out of the old forms. I wish I were kidding.
And when will the State be taken to court to reverse this?
After the midterms, of course, citing docket availability.
Doesn’t have quite the same ring to it.
The headline is accurate. Mailed proof of residence accompanying the voter registration is not required.
Claiming that the law requires such proof accompanying the registration, as oppposed to being presented at the polls when voting for the first time, inhibits public registration drives, since people may not be carrying around such proof with them and the registration drives are unlikely to have copy machines available.
If only the right to vote were a real right, you know, the kind whose violation triggers criminal penalties.