Fulton County, Georgia has just admitted to disfranchising and misleading voters during the last two presidential elections. But the fine imposed really does little to address all of Georgia’s voting rights’ restrictions.
In addition to the states’ slashing the number of early voting days in half - more than once - another contentious statewide regulation is the “exact match” rule. Julie Houk with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law explained to ThinkProgress how under this system “even a minor difference between the information on someone’s voter registration form and their DMV or Social Security records can result in their form being thrown out.”
For example, if a person uses a common name like “Tom” instead of the formal Thomas listed on state records, or if a hyphen gets omitted from a hyphenated last name, these votes could be thrown out, adds Houk.
Georgia, says TP, is only one of a few states that has the “exact match” requirement.
The State of Georgia needs to do more than fine just one county for disenfranchising voters in past elections. It should make sweeping reforms to its entire voting system, beginning with pitching the “exact match” requirement, to ensure that all voters’ rights are protected during future elections.
Sign this petition to demand Georgia drop its “exact match” rule.
We, the undersigned, find Georgia’s “exact match” rule a serious violation of voters’ rights.
According to Julie Houk with the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, “quite a few people” in 2014 were rejected from voting because of this rule.
This violation of voters’ rights is one of the most contentious of the state’s several voting roadblocks reported by Think Progress, another of which is the repeated cuts in the number of days available for early voting, with plans to cut even more.
Add to that what Houk calls “...an unnecessary deadline that prejudices people who may not have access to the proof they need,” Georgia is ready to implement yet another contentious policy that requires proof of citizenship as a condition to register for state elections.
All of these actions add up to making it harder for the poor to exercise their constitutional right to vote, and, based on the law President Johnson signed in 1965, there is no excuse for these restrictions to voting. We insist that Georgia reform its voting system, beginning with elimination of the “exact match” rule.
