Black Voters in Georgia Disproportionately Impacted by New ID Requirements

WASHINGTON, D.C. — A new study released Tuesday by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution shows that Black and urban voters in Georgia will be disproportionately impacted by new ID requirements under Georgia’s new voter suppression law, Senate Bill 202. The law requires absentee voters to have a driver’s license or state ID on file with their registrations and, if they do not, they will be required to provide additional identification such as a utility bill in order to vote absentee. There are over a quarter of a million Georgia voters who do not have IDs on file with election officials — more than 50% are Black, and the largest number of voters without IDs live in Democratic-majority counties in the state. 

The reasons voters may not have an ID on record with the state can include official errors after the state switched to automatic voter registration at driver’s license offices, matching problems for voters with hyphenated last names and privacy concerns. The new ID requirements are just another attempt by Georgia Republicans to limit access to the ballot box after a record number of Georgians voted absentee last year.

Read the study here.