Georgia: New voter registration directive: No Car, No Vote

[mysteryowl]

No Car, No Vote
"Emergency" Georgia Registration Roadblock
by Greg Palast| Palast Investigative Reporter, November 25, 2020

On Monday, Georgia’s Board of Elections issued a directive that allows county election supervisors to block new registrations of voters who do not have a car registered in Georgia. I kid you not.

This is a new impediment to low-income, urban voters and students, groups that vote overwhelmingly Democratic, just prior to the January 5 run-off election for Georgia’s two US Senate seats.

The Board acted after Republican Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger quietly sent out a notice on Sunday afternoon calling for an “emergency” change of rules.

Raffensperger convened a State Board of Elections “emergency” meeting just hours later, at 8am on Monday, in Atlanta. The Palast Investigations Fund team joined the Zoom meet along with the president of the Georgia NAACP and Helen Butler, head of the Georgia Coalition for a Peoples Agenda.

The Board announced that they did not have to vote on the rule—but could simply adopt it as a “guidance” directive which would have the same power to block registrations.


https://www.gregpalast.com/no-car-no-vote/

EDIT UPDATE:

&feature=emb_logo




Once Trump is gone the republican party will keep doing criminal acts.

[UncleTomsEvilBrother]

1. Respectfully...

...I think the title of the article is very misleading.

[mysteryowl]

5. Say more

[wryter2000]

8. I gather

Last edited Fri Nov 27, 2020, 02:59 PM - Edit history (1)

What UncleTomsEvilBrother means is people who are already registered can vote. This affects people who want to register now.

Edited to delete the word "only," which seems to have people's shorts in a bunch. If you look at my other posts in this thread, you'll see I consider this a very serious issue. I was merely trying to explain why "no car, no vote" doesn't exclude all voters who don't have cars.

[caraher]

20. Which is bad enough

I'm sure you don't mean it that way, but saying it "only" affects new registrants can be perceived as diminishing the evil of the directive.

[Roland99]

30. Would block a lot of college students

[enough]

24. That doesn't seem outrageous to you? NT

[elleng]

28. 'ONLY?'

[wryter2000]

10. I love your user name

Imagining Uncle Tom having an evil brother.

[miyazaki]

29. Hehe. Ever read the Sea Wolf? nt

[UncleTomsEvilBrother]

38. LOL!

Thanks!

[wryter2000]

2. This has to be challenged in court

There's no way this is legal.

I gather, though, it wouldn't affect anyone already registered.

Edited to add Could this be heard in a federal court because it affects an election to a federal body, or would it have to be heard only in a state court?

[ananda]

14. Definitely completely illegal and unconstitutional!

Take it to court now!

[mysteryowl]

16. and all the while there are only 2 weeks left for voter registration

and the people that are scared off by this won't fight it.

[triron]

33. Perhaps the ACLU will file suit? Or one of the Dem Senate campaigns?

[MiniMe]

35. Basically a Poll tax, which is illegal

[Laelth]

3. k&r for visibility. That really CAN'T be the rule.

Car registration has never before been a prerequisite for the right to vote. That’s got to be an unconstitutional poll tax.

-Laelth

[mysteryowl]

7. It won't be challenged until after the registration and election closes.

They just need to spread misinformation.

What SOB's!

[wryter2000]

13. Why would that be true?

Asking honestly. What's to prevent the ACLU from petitioning a court for emergency action on Monday?

[mysteryowl]

17. I hope it is! The discussion on the radio was that there is not enough time.

[CurtEastPoint]

4. Absolutely illegal. Yet they keep trying, don't they?

[mysteryowl]

12. It probably will divert at some voters.

With these close races that is all they need to do to steal the election.

[RANDYWILDMAN]

6. Stacey Abrams, let's hear from her on this crap...

Just remember how close Georgia was to having her as Governor. Wow it's like the voter suppression is systemic.

[mysteryowl]

9. I would like to see more on this.

[Iggo]

11. I believe the term everyone is searching for is "poll tax."

[DFW]

15. Amy Phony Carrot would uphold it

She would say that the framers never forbade prohibiting non-automobile owners from voting, therefore the State of Georgia is within its rights to forbid people who do not own cars from voting.

[dragonlady]

26. Especially including those who turned 18 since the November election

There is a group of young activists in Georgia who are working to register the newly eligible voters. What a thrill that can be for them to know they can vote in this most crucial election.

[csziggy]

31. Would it also affect people who lease cars?

Aren't the cars still in the dealership's name until and unless the car is purchased off-lease? I've never leased a car (other than for short term while on vacation) so I have no idea how that works.

[thucythucy]

19. So people with disabilities who can't drive

are now excluded from being able to register to vote?

[mysteryowl]

21. Yep, it is an ugly attempt to disenfranchise new voters

This is about NEW registrations.

[LisaL]

22. A lot of newly registered voters would be those who just turned 18.

Many of them won't have cars even if they are not disabled.

[mysteryowl]

23. Yep, and college students

They know it does!
Those SOB's!

[Retrograde]

25. Palast again?

This was debunked on this site days ago. The Georgia guidelines say that registrars may take the registration location of a vehicle into account when determining residency, not that one must have a car to vote. It's one of the critieria they may consider for new voters, along with a number of other things. Palast focused on this one phrase and has blown it out of proportion.

[mysteryowl]

27. Good to know.

[SlogginThroughIt]

34. Yeah Palast is a kook.

He raises some good questions but he is a bit of a blowhard to me.

[Phoenix61]

36. That makes a lot more sense as your car is supposed to

be registered where you live.

[Roisin Ni Fiachra]

37. It's another easy peasy method of voter suppression.

Republican Registrars can arbitrarily refuse to register anyone who does not have a car registered in Georgia.

It's up to the Registrar's discretion: In other words, a black man has a valid Georgia State ID card. Republican Registrar doesn't like the way black man looks. Republican Registrar asks black man for car registration. Black man doesn't drive and doesn't have a car registration. Black Man asks for a hearing, but can't get one until after the runoff election

Another Democratic voter cheated out of their vote by Republicans.

Greg Palast is an excellent investigative journalist.

Columbia University law professor Barbara Arnwine told us the no-car no-vote “emergency” regulation “is a clear violation of the NVRA,” the National Voter Registration Act. Arnwine, dean of America’s voting rights lawyers and founder of the Transformative Justice Coalition, said she suspected the state’s change from a “rule” to a “guidance” is to try to get around the NVRA’s prohibition on rule changes within 90 days of an election. However, she said, that’s a trick which fails the smell test. “It’s in substance a change of rules.”

https://www.gregpalast.com/no-car-no-vote/

Barbara Anwine

Barbara R. Arnwine served as the executive director of the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law from 1989 until 2015. Born in southern California, Arnwine is a graduate of Scripps College and Duke University School of Law. After graduating from Duke Law School, she stayed in Durham and worked for the Durham Legal Assistance Program and as a Reginald Huber Smith fellow. She moved on to the legal service’s head office in Raleigh, North Carolina in 1979, working on affirmative action policies, reviewing contracts, and legal aid programs. In the 1980s she served as executive director of the Boston Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights.[1]

She became renowned for her work on the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1991.[2] She also focused on international civil rights matters, serving as a member of the advance team of the Lawyers’ Committee's South Africa Electoral Observers Delegation.[3] In 1995, she served as the National Convener of the National Conference on African American Women and the Law and led a delegation to the NGO Forum and Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing. Her involvement contributed to a United Nations Platform for Action that provides protection for women against multiple forms of discrimination.[4] In 2001, Arnwine helped draft provisions of the program for action for the UN World Conference Against Racism, Racial Discrimination, and Xenophobia in Durban, South Africa.[5] In 2003, Arnwine was elected to the Common Cause National Governing Board.

She is a leader of Election Protection (EP), the nation's largest nonpartisan voter protection coalition, launched in 2004 to assist historically disenfranchised persons to exercise the fundamental right to vote. In 2008, EP involved more than 10,000 volunteers and the EP hotline received more than 240,000 calls.[6]

Arnwine has received numerous awards, including the National Bar Association's Gertrude E. Rush Award and the National Black Law Students Association’s Sadie T.M. Alexander Award in 2011, the Washington D.C. Freedom’s Sisters Award and the Keeper of the Flame Award from the Boston Lawyers' Committee in 2009, the Rockwood Institute Leadership Fellowship in 2008, the National Bar Association's Equal Justice Award and the C. Francis Stradford Award in 2007, and the Charlotte E. Ray Award from the Greater Washington Area Chapter, Women Lawyers Division of the National Bar Association in 2002.[7] She was one among five recipients of the 2011 Gruber Prize for Justice.[8]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barbara_Arnwine