Karen Handel

Georgia's "Non-Citizen" Voting Controversy: A Recap

Zachary Roth | November 12, 2008, 11:34AM

So let's briefly look back at what appears to have happened in the controversy over voting in Georgia this election cycle.

First, GOP Secretary of State Karen Handel, based on an interpretation of federal election law, purged around 50,000 newly registered voters from the rolls, based on discrepancies between the information on their voter registration form and that in state databases. About 5000 of those voters were purged because the state found that they had checked a box on their drivers license application indicating that they're non-citizens.

Voting-rights groups sued Handel, claiming that the purge violated federal voting laws, and that the procedure for identifying non-citizens was flawed. For instance, the plaintiff in the case, Jose Morales, had applied for his drivers license while a non-citizen, but had become a naturalized citizen before the election. Since the drivers database is not automatically updated in such cases, he was still flagged as a non-citizen.

Ultimately, a judge required Handel to send a letter to the voters flagged as non-citizens, informing them that their status was in question and notifying them that they could cast a provisional ballot. But if they didn't provide election officials with documents proving their citizenship, within a few days after the election, their ballots would be thrown out.

Many such voters -- in some counties, about two thirds -- did return with the correct documentation. But of course, many didn't, and some counties began throwing out ballots this week.

And the fact that so many did provide documentation only served to bolster the contention of voting-rights groups that the process for flagging voters had been badly flawed. That claim was further strengthened by the fact that the system now seems to have flagged not only naturalized citizens like Morales, but also U.S. born voters whose citizenship has never been in question. One of these voters, a veteran of the U.S. military who received Handel's letter telling her that her citizenship was in question, spoke to TPMmuckraker yesterday.

It's still not clear how many voters were wrongly flagged, and either had their ballots thrown out or were discouraged by Handel's letter from voting in the first place. The question is not academic, because a runoff vote in Georgia's U.S. Senate race, between Republican Saxby Chambliss and Democrat Jim Martin, is scheduled for December 2nd, after neither man gained 50 percent last week. The vote is expected to be extremely close, and voters who have been designated as non-citizens, correctly or incorrectly, will presumably be barred from casting conventional ballots once again.

Handel's office has said it's working on compiling those numbers, though it appears to be in no rush. We'll keep you posted on what we hear...

Voting

Georgia Military Vet, American Born, Was Flagged As Non-Citizen

Zachary Roth | November 11, 2008, 6:33PM

Yesterday we reported on the election's aftermath in Georgia, where some ballots cast by voters who were flagged as non-citizens are now being thrown out, despite evidence that the state's system for identifying non-citizens was flawed.

We just spoke to one such Georgia voter. Karen Branch of Roswell, in North Fulton County, told TPMmuckraker that just a few days before the election, she received a letter from the office of Secretary of State Karen Handel, a Republican, informing Branch that there were questions about her citizenship.

When Branch went to vote on election day, poll workers told her she had to cast a provisional ballot. Eventually, voting-rights lawyers got on the phone with county election officers, and Branch was allowed to cast a conventional ballot.

But why was Branch flagged in the first place? Handel's office has told us it compared new voter registrations with a state drivers registry, which asks applicants for a drivers license to check a box if they aren't a citizen. It flagged any new voter who had checked that box as a possible non-citizen. After voting-rights groups sued, Handel was required by a judge to send letters to those voters -- around 4700 in all -- telling them that their citizenship was in question and that they would be forced to cast a provisional ballot.

Branch, an African-American who served in the U.S. military during the 90s and now works for a hospital corporation, said she has voted in Georgia in every presidential election since 2000, including this year's primary. She moved from one part of the state to another after the primary -- she re-registered at her new address -- making her, technically, a newly registered voter. But her citizenship has never been in question -- she was born in the U.S. and does not even own a passport. And she applied for her drivers license years ago -- since which time she has been voting without incident -- making it unlikely that she mistakenly checked the "non-citizen" box on her license application.

Branch told TPMmuckraker that she perceived the obstacles as a deliberate "deterrent" to voting, set up by the state.

It's not yet clear how many other voters, like Branch, were mistakenly flagged. But as we noted yesterday, many counties found that around two thirds of flagged voters returned to election offices after election day with documentation proving their citizenship. That would suggest that the error rate in the state's system is high, and that many of the voters who did not return with the proper documentation, some of whom are now having their provisional ballots thrown out, were also mistakenly flagged.

A spokesman for Handel's office yesterday told TPMmuckraker that the office was compiling information from individual counties which would help determine the number of errors. We'll be watching...

voter fraud

Georgia Can't Say How Many Eligible Voters It's Currently Disenfranchising

Zachary Roth | November 10, 2008, 5:37PM

This morning we told you that election officials in Georgia are throwing out ballots cast by new voters who couldn't prove their citizenship, on the orders of the Republican secretary of state, Karen Handel.

And now Handel's office says it can't say how many of those disqualified ballots were actually cast by eligible voters.

A spokesman for the office insisted to TPMmuckraker that most of the voters originally identified through the state's system for finding non-citizens had self-identified as being such. But voting-rights groups argue that that system -- which checks registrations against state drivers records -- is flawed, and could lead to be eligible voters being included through data entry errors and other administrative errors.

Handel's office couldn't yet say how many mistakes had been made, though the spokesman added that the information would soon become available as information from individual counties came in.

In other words, the office can't say how many eligible voters cast ballots that are now being thrown out.

The dispute began back in October, when voting-rights groups including the ACLU sued the state over an effort by Handel to purge from the rolls newly registered voters whose citizenship was called into question by the state's database.

A judge ultimately ruled that the state must allow the voters whose citizenship was in question -- around 5000 -- to cast provisional ballots, and must inform them of the challenge to their eligibility. The voters would then have to show documents proving their citizenship, either on Election Day or in subsequent days, in order for their ballot to be counted.

As we wrote earlier today, many voters did so, but in some counties, around a third did not, causing their some of their ballots to be disqualified starting today. But it now appears almost certain that some ballots cast by eligible voters who were mistakenly flagged, and who then failed to provide election officials with the necessary documents after the fact, are being wrongly thrown out.

We'll continue to keep you posted as more information becomes available...

Karen Handel

After Citizenship Challenges, Ballots Thrown Out in Georgia

Zachary Roth | November 10, 2008, 11:31AM

A significant number of the almost 5000 Georgia voters whose citizenship was challenged before the election will not have their ballots counted.

Last week, about 4,770 voters were told they would have to vote on paper ballots because their citizenship was in question. It was then up to them to return to their local election boards with proof of citizenship.

In several counties, reports the Atlanta Journal-Constitution, about one third of those voters neither returned with the necessary documents, nor showed up to last-chance hearings late last week. As a result, in many counties at least, their ballots will be thrown out.

The issue is not merely academic for this year's election. Neither major candidate got 50 percent of the vote in Georgia's U.S. Senate race, forcing a run-off to be held December 2nd. Voters whose ballots were thrown out would presumably also be barred from voting in the runoff.

The state requires newly registered voters to verify their citizenship -- a requirement that has been questioned by the U.S. Department of Justice and is the subject of a lawsuit.

Georgia Secretary of State Karen Handel -- who before the election was criticized by voting-rights groups for taking an overly restrictive approach to voting -- verifies citizenship by checking voter registration information against state records.

Handel has said that the only people who were checked were new voters or those who changed an essential piece of information on their registration form. But it's unclear on exactly what basis the citizenship challenges were made.

We'll keep you posted as things become clearer.