Voting Rights Infringement in Georgia

Georgia legislators have passed a law that sets a dangerous precedent on the issue of minority voting rights. The law, if approved by the Justice department, would stipulate that all voters in the state be required to present a government-issued form of identification before being permitted to vote. The primary concern with this law is the restriction it would potentially place on elderly African-American residents’ right to vote in Georgia. It is an undisputed fact that fewer elderly people in general have drivers’ licenses. However, the difference is much more exaggerated for black seniors, who also have a disproportionately smaller access to other forms of official identification, such as birth certificates.

This type of legislation certainly violates the Voting Rights Act, which was enacted in order to guard minorities against voting laws that have an adverse impact on particular communities such as the grandfather clauses and poll tax laws, common in the Jim Crow South. Such practices served as a legal means to keep blacks away from the polls and on the outside of the political process throughout most of the first half of the twentieth century.

It’s a good thing Congress has continued to reenact the Voting Rights Act in the years since it’s original expiration date. Cases such as this one in Georgia prove that, in spite of the sweeping advances of the Civil Rights Movement and the diversity of the country today, the Voting Rights Act is needed now more than ever.

See editorial in today's New York Times about Georgia voting rights law.

--Posted by Nicole Brown