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ajc.com > Metro Georgia voter ID law put on hold

By CARLOS CAMPOS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 07/07/06

A Fulton County judge has stopped enforcement of the state's photo voter ID law, ruling that it "unduly burdens the fundamental right to vote."

Former Gov. Roy Barnes had sought the court action, arguing Thursday before Judge Melvin K. Westmoreland that requiring voters to show government-issued photo ID violated the state Constitution.

Barnes said the Constitution sets forth basic requirements for the right to vote, but showing photo ID is not among them.

The Legislature passed a law earlier this year requiring voters to show one of six forms of government-issued photo ID prior to casting a ballot, including a driver's license, passport or military ID.

Opponents of the law have argued that acquiring photo ID is difficult for some people, such as elderly people who don't drive or the disabled.

Lawyers for the state argued that lawmakers routinely set policies and regulations for voting, such as determining when and where voters can cast ballots.

But Westmoreland said in his ruling that legislators overstepped their bounds.

"The right to vote is not absolute as the state can impose voter qualifications and regulate access to voting," Westmoreland wrote. "However, it cannot unduly burden that paramount right to vote. The power to regulate elections does not justify the abridgment of the right to vote."

Barnes also accused the Republican party of cooking up photo ID as a political ploy to suppress the votes of poor, elderly and minority voters who tend to cast Democratic ballots.

In his ruling, Westmoreland noted the political backdrop to the voter ID issue, but emphasized that his ruling was made strictly on legal terms.

"The Court does not view this as a political matter, but rather a constitutional issue to be decided."

Thank you for Keeping The Faith.
Sadie Fields