State sued over voter registration

A lawsuit has been filed against Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp over some 53,000 voter registrations that are marked as “pending.”

In Coweta, the Voter Registration Office had 397 pending voter registrations as of Friday afternoon, according to Coweta Elections Superintendent Jane Scoggins. The majority of those – 233 – are pending because the registrants haven’t yet turned 18, Scoggins said. Under state law, Georgians can register at age 17 1/2 but cannot vote until their 18th birthdays.

Seventeen of the pending registrations are because of citizenship verification, 89 of them are because the voters’ Social Security information doesn’t match their name or birthday, and 42 are because the last four digits of the registrant’s Social Security number don't match the information in the Georgia Department of Driver Services database, Scoggins said.

“This policy adds nothing to the security of Georgia elections but causes unnecessary confusion and additional burdens for eligible citizens who wish to exercise their fundamental right to vote,” said Danielle Lang of the Campaign Legal Center.

Read the full article