There’s a major battle over voting rights going on in Georgia right now, on the eve of a historic gubernatorial election, and there are 53,000 voters on the line. Brian Kemp is both Georgia’s secretary of state and the Republican nominee for governor. He’s using the first office to try to secure the second through the most nefarious means possible: voter suppression.
Kemp is enforcing an overtly biased “exact match” policy. In short, officials place a hold on every voter registration submission that doesn’t perfectly match the person’s other official records down to the letter, digit, apostrophe, or hyphen. It’s then on the voter to remedy the error(s) within 26 months or else start the application process anew. Officials also pause the applications of potential “non-citizens,” identified using faulty and outdated data. Eighty percent of the 53,000 Georgians whose applications have been paused are people of color.
Democratic gubernatorial nominee Stacey Abrams has called on Kemp to resign, and rightly so. It beggars the imagination that anyone could miss Kemp’s conflict of interest.
Under state law, voters whose registration is “pending” should still be able to vote on Election Day so long as they produce ID. Question is, will all the poll workers know that? Most reporting has suggested that voters in limbo have to cast provisional ballots. The difference between a regular and a provisional ballot is enormous: Provisional ballots are less likely to be counted.
Civil rights groups are taking Kemp to court. They argue that the “exact match” policy he’s implementing violates Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act by imposing an impermissible barrier to voting.
No voting qualification or prerequisite to voting or standard, practice, or procedure shall be imposed or applied by any State or political subdivision in a manner which results in a denial or abridgment of the right of any citizen of the United State to vote on account of race or color, or [membership in a language minority group].
There’s no real question that Kemp’s tactics disproportionately affect voters of color in Georgia. The plaintiffs spell out the facts and circumstances that indicate that this is exactly the type of policy the VRA was meant to prevent:
(1) a history of discrimination related to voting; (2) racially polarized voting patterns; (3) members of the impacted minority group bear the effects of discrimination in such areas as education, employment, and health; (4) members of the impacted minority group are underrepresented among Georgia’s elected officials; (5) a lack of responsiveness to the needs of the impacted minority community; and (6) an arbitrary policy underlying the HB 268 “exact match” protocol that is tenuously related to its stated purpose, which is to assure the identity and eligibility of voters and prevent fraudulent or erroneous registrations.
The lawsuit goes on to argue that the “exact match” policy also violates the First and 14th Amendments of the Constitution. That’s because participation in the political process, and voting, are protected by assurances of freedom of speech and association. Because the right to vote is a fundamental right, the Fifth Amendment Due Process Clause applies to any policy that violates that right.
The plaintiffs also state that Kemp’s violating the National Voter Registration Act. That act requires Georgia to “ensure that any eligible applicant is registered to vote in an election” so long as their voter registration application is submitted in a timely fashion. That’s pretty much the opposite of what Kemp’s up to.
There’s little likelihood of an immediate solution. That said, plaintiffs have asked the court for a preliminary injunction that would reinstate “pending” voters. Their ultimate goal is getting the court to strike the “exact match” provision and discriminatory practices from state law HB 268 altogether.