ACLU attacks voter registration bill

ATLANTA - A bill introduced in the state Senate that would require proof of citizenship when you register to vote is under attack.

The American Civil Liberties Union says the bill is even more "devastating" than the voter identification bills which it has been fighting.

If it passes, Georgia would become only the second state in the nation, behind Arizona, requiring prospective voters to show they are U.S. citizens to register. The Arizona law is facing a legal challenge.

The Georgia bill has the backing of Secretary of State Karen Handel, a Republican candidate for governor in 2010.

``This law will prevent non-citizens from registering to vote and ultimately voting in Georgia's elections,'' Handel said.

Current law requires those registering to vote only to ``swear or affirm'' that they are a U.S. citizen by checking a box on the application.

The bill from state Sen. Cecil Staton, a Macon Republican, would require prospective voters to provide proof of U.S. citizenship with their application, such as a driver's license, birth certificate, U.S. passport or U.S. naturalization documents.

Those already registered to vote won't be required to submit evidence of citizenship, unless they update their voter registration from one county to another, under the bill.

Voter ID has been a contentious issue in Georgia ever since the Republican-led state Legislature first adopted a law in 2005 requiring Georgians to present a valid, government-issued photo ID to cast a ballot in person. A federal judge first blocked the law saying it amounted to an unconstitutional poll tax. He later cleared it after state lawmakers made ID's free to anyone who needed them.

The U.S. Supreme Court weighed in last year, ruling that an Indiana photo ID law similar to Georgia's was constitutional. But the Indiana case only dealt with IDs required to cast a ballot, not those to register to vote.

Voting rights advocates complained that the new Georgia voter registration bill raises some of the same constitutional concerns as the state's original photo ID law by mandating that voters have identification that costs money to obtain.
``These citizenship bills are even more devastating then the ID bills; they hit a lot more people,'' Neil Bradley, associate director of the American Civil Liberties Union Voting Rights Project, said.

Matt Carrothers, a spokesman for Handel, said that the secretary of state's office is investigating several allegations of non-citizens registering to vote. He could not say who made the allegations or how many complaints are being investigated because the probes are ongoing.

Carrothers also noted that screening efforts last year designed to verify the citizenship of new voter applicants flagged some 4,700 people who might not be citizens. The state's voter checks are being challenged in court. Carrothers said it was never determined whether any of those flagged voters were, in fact, not citizens.

The voter registration bill is being sponsored in the Georgia House by state Rep. Roger Williams, R-Dalton.

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On the Net: S.B. 86. http://www.legis.ga.gov