Georgia sued over voter citizenship verification - ajc.com

Voting rights groups on Thursday sued Secretary of State Karen Handel on behalf of a Cherokee County man who they said has been the victim of a methodical effort to deny him the right to vote.

The suit, filed in U.S. District Court in Atlanta, seeks to halt the state’s attempts to verify the identities and citizenship of registered voters so close to the Nov. 4 election. Attorneys for the plaintiff, Jose Morales, also want the suit to become a class action.

U.S. District Judge Jack Camp scheduled a hearing for Friday morning on a request for a temporary restraining order.

The suit comes the day after the U.S. Department of Justice said the state’s actions to verify identity and citizenship appear to violate the Voting Rights Act of 1965. The law requires states with a history of discriminatory voting practices to get approval from the federal government before making certain changes to voting and election policy.

“The Voting Rights Act and the National Voter Registration Act were intended to protect voters from ‘October surprises,’ the last-minute purging of registered voters on questionable data,” said Neil Bradley, associate director of the ACLU Voting Rights Project, one of the groups representing Morales.

Secretary of State Karen Handel said in a press release issued Thursday night that she is “disappointed” with the lawsuit.

“Unfortunately, some groups appear to want to open the door to allow non-citizens to register and vote in the General Election,” she wrote.

County election officials still have more than 100,000 voter registration applications to process, Handel said. Her office will ensure that all applications are processed and verified for election day, she said.

As for the dispute with the Department of Justice, Handel’s spokesman, Matt Carrothers, said in a telephone interview Thursday night that his office is working with the attorney general to address the Justice Department questions. “We hope to have the answers soon,” he said.

Morales, who will graduate from Kennesaw State University in December with a bachelor’s degree in international affairs, became a U.S. citizen in November 2007.

He registered to vote last month, but about two weeks later, he received a letter from Cherokee County indicating he would not be able to vote unless he provided evidence of his citizenship, the lawsuit said. The letter also indicated Morales would be eliminated from the voter list if he did not prove his citizenship.

Morales went through the steps needed to prove his citizenship, including making a visit to the county Elections and Registrations Office and showing his passport to the clerk, the suit said. He was told he would soon be receiving his voter registration card in the mail. He received the card Oct. 3, the lawsuit said.

But on Tuesday, Morales received another letter from the office indicating he may not be qualified to vote because he may not be a U.S. citizen, the lawsuit said. It said if Morales did not contact the Cherokee Elections and Registration Office before Oct. 15 or appear at a court hearing on the same date, his name would be removed from the list of registered voters, the suit said.

“Despite all the steps he has gone through, Mr. Morales’ right to vote is still being threatened,” the lawsuit said. “Mr. Morales wants to vote, particularly in the upcoming election, and wants to make sure his vote is counted.”

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