Judge Dismisses Challenge to Georgia’s Voter Citizenship Verification Requirements
WASHINGTON, D.C. — Georgia’s voter citizenship verification requirements for naturalized citizens will stand, a federal judge ruled in the midst of a trial earlier today, keeping in place the state’s process of cross checking citizenship status to determine voter eligibility.
This decision comes after the court only heard three days of testimony in a case that has been ongoing for six years. Originally filed in 2018, by eight pro-voting advocacy groups, the now dismissed lawsuit challenged the state’s protocol for matching naturalized citizens’ voter registrations with the state’s citizenship records to determine their eligibility.
When a naturalized citizen registers to vote in Georgia, their county registrar verifies proof of citizenship using data from the state’s Department of Driver Services. If the voter’s citizenship cannot be verified through the agency’s database, the voter must provide documented proof of citizenship within 26 months or their voter registration application will be canceled. The plaintiffs alleged that the department’s data is often out of date, leading many naturalized citizens’ voter registrations to be wrongly flagged and canceled.
Advocacy organizations argued that Georgia’s verification process unfairly discriminates against naturalized citizens, many of whom are Latino or Asian American, in violation of federal laws and the U.S. Constitution.
Today, the judge dismissed the case altogether after finding that the plaintiffs failed to prove naturalized citizens’ voting rights were violated by this process.