Court Opinion

ID: 9719520
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 07:55:13.646071+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:24:11.320425
License: Public Domain

BENHAM, Justice,
dissenting.
Here in the first paragraph of the Declaration [of Independence], is the assertion of the natural right of all to the ballot; for how can “the consent of the governed” be given, if the right to vote be denied?
— Susan B. Anthony (1873).
This country has a long history of denying the franchise to certain groups of citizens — non-property owners, members of certain religions, African-Americans, women, Native Americans, young adults aged 18 to 21, etc.13 It is unfortunate that over the *731course of the last 13 years, this State has placed ever increasing restrictions on its citizens’ ability to cast regular, non-provisional ballots at their local polling precincts. While requiring the presentation of government-issued photographic identification may seem reasonable in the Twenty-First Century, such qualification is not in fact reasonable. Citizens at the margins of our society (i.e., the poor, infirm, and elderly) are still effectively being disenfranchised in the name of the government’s purported interest in preventing voting frauds that have not been proven to occur at any rate of significance. As such, I must respectfully disagree with the majority opinion in this case.
Prior to 1998, Georgia citizens who were registered voters were not required to show identification, photographic or otherwise, in order to cast a regular ballot at their local polling precincts. As long as a citizen’s name appeared on the polling precinct’s register, the citizen was allowed to cast his or her ballot as he or she saw fit. After 1998 and prior to 2006, the General Assembly changed the law, requiring citizens to show one of seventeen forms of identification,14 both photographic and non-photographic, in order to cast a regular ballot at his or her polling precinct. If the citizen did not have one of the seventeen forms of identification, he or she could still cast a regular ballot upon signing an affidavit swearing to his or her identity, subject to a felony conviction for a false swearing. OCGA § 21-2-417 (b) (2005).
With the passage of the 2006 Photo ID Act, the General *732Assembly has further constricted a citizen’s ability to cast a regular ballot at his or her polling precinct upon the showing of one of six forms of government-issued photographic identification.15 If a citizen fails to present any one of the six forms of government-issued photographic identification, then he or she is not allowed to cast a regular ballot. Instead, the citizen must cast a provisional ballot at the precinct and then the county registrar must determine within three days whether the citizen is eligible to vote. OCGA §§ 21-2-417 (b) (2011); 21-2-419 (2011). If the registrar fails to meet the deadline for any reason or is otherwise unable to determine the citizen’s eligibility to vote, then the citizen’s ballot is not counted. Id.
[T]he legislature has a wide latitude in determining how qualifications required by the Constitution may be determined, provided it does not deny the right of franchise by making the exercise of such right so difficult or inconvenient as to amount to a denial of the right to vote.
Franklin v. Harper, 205 Ga. 779, 790 (55 SE2d 221) (1949). Here the majority contends that citizens are not burdened by the 2006 Voter ID Act because a citizen may obtain a voter identification card “free of charge.” However, obtaining the “free” voter identification card is actually more burdensome than registering to vote. In order to obtain a voter identification card, a citizen cannot merely show that he or she is listed in the voter registry, but must provide: “[a] photo identity document16 or approved non-photo identity document17 that includes full legal name and date of birth; [d]ocumentation showing *733the voter’s date of birth; [e]vidence that the applicant is a registered voter; [and] [documentation showing the applicant’s name and residential address.”18 If a citizen goes to the Department of Driver Services to obtain his or her voter identification card, rather than to his or her county registrar, he or she must provide proof of citizenship, present original and certified documentation (rather than copies), and provide an affidavit. In contrast, it is less rigorous to register to vote because a citizen need only fill out the voter registration form and submit a copy of a valid photo ID, a copy of a current utility bill, bank statement, government check, paycheck or other government document that shows the citizen’s name or address.19
Whereas before 2006, a registered voter without photographic identification could simply show up at his or her polling precinct with a copy of a current utility bill and be allowed to cast a regular ballot, he or she must now collect (and likely pay fees for) a plethora of original documentation (most of which is not required to register to vote in the first instance), incur the time and expense to make a trip to the county registrar or Department of Driver Services (which may or not be as close as his or her polling precinct), and then make a second trip to the polling place to vote on election day. Thus, it is clear that the “free” voter identification card, and the movement toward a singular system of photographic identification for in-person voting in general, is an unnecessary construct making the ability to vote more burdensome for persons who are poor, infirm, or elderly. Such inconvenient and difficult impediments to exercising the franchise are in express contradiction of Franklin v. Harper.
The option to vote by absentee ballot does not mitigate the inconveniences and difficulties described above. While having such an option may aid some citizens, especially those who are physically immobile, voting by absentee ballot is not the ideal. Indeed, there is an inherent First Amendment interest that is coupled with exercising the franchise — the right to be among one’s fellow citizens at the polling precinct and to openly exercise his or her right to participate in a democracy. The fact that one does not have the where-with-all to *734obtain a government-issued photographic identification should not relegate him or her to casting his or her ballot in secret and in absentia. Accordingly, I would reverse the judgment of the trial court.
Decided March 7, 2011.
Bondurant, Mixson & Elmore, Emmet J. Bondurant, David G. Brackett, James J. Carter, for appellant.
Thurbert E. Baker, Attorney General, Dennis R. Dunn, Deputy Attorney General, Stefan E. Ritter, Assistant Attorney General, Trout-man Sanders, Mark H. Cohen, Strickland, Brockington & Lewis, Anne W. Lewis, for appellees.

 “Universal suffrage is one of the cherished conceits of modern American democracy. When the nation was founded, almost the only people who could vote were free white male *731property owners over the age of twenty-one.” Laughlin McDonald, “A Voting Rights Odyssey: Black Enfranchisement in Georgia,” pp. 1-2 (Cambridge Press 2003). For U. S. Supreme Court decisions concerning voting rights in Georgia during the Civil Rights Era see also Gray v. Sanders, 372 U. S. 368 (83 SC 801, 9 LE2d 821) (1963); Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 U. S. 1 (84 SC 526, 11 LE2d 526) (1964); Fortson v. Dorsey, 379 U. S. 433 (85 SC 498, 13 LE2d 401) (1965).

 The seventeen forms of identification included: A valid Georgia driver’s license; a valid identification card issued by a branch, department, agency, or entity of the State of Georgia, any other state, or the United States authorized by law to issue personal identification; a valid United States passport; a valid employee identification card containing a photograph of the elector and issued by any branch, department, agency, or entity of the United States government, this state, or any county, municipality, board, authority, or other entity of this state; a valid employee identification card containing a photograph of the elector and issued by any employer of the elector in the ordinary course of such employer’s business; a valid student identification card containing a photograph of the elector from any public or private college, university, or postgraduate technical or professional school located within the State of Georgia; a valid Georgia license to carry a pistol or revolver; a valid pilot’s license issued by the Federal Aviation Administration or other authorized agency of the United States; a valid United States military identification card; a certified copy of the elector’s birth certificate; a valid social security card; certified naturalization documentation; or a certified copy of court records showing adoption, name, or sex change; a current utility bill, or a legible copy thereof, showing the name and address of the elector; a bank statement, or a legible copy thereof, showing the name and address of the elector; a government check or paycheck, or a legible copy thereof, showing the name and address of the elector; or a government document, or a legible copy thereof, showing the name and address of the elector. OCGA § 21-2-417 (a) (2005).

 The six valid forms of government-issued photographic identification include: a Georgia driver’s license which was properly issued by the appropriate state agency; a valid Georgia voter identification card or other valid identification card issued by a branch, department, agency, or entity of the State of Georgia, any other state, or the United States authorized by law to issue personal identification, provided that such identification card contains a photograph of the elector; a valid United States passport; a valid employee identification card containing a photograph of the elector and issued by any branch, department, agency, or entity of the United States government, this state, or any county, municipality, board, authority, or other entity of this state; a valid United States military identification card, provided that such identification card contains a photograph of the elector; or a valid tribal identification card containing a photograph of the elector. OCGA § 21-2-417 (a) (2011).

 Photo identity documents include: student identification card; transit card; pilot’s license; nursing home identification card; employee identification card; government housing authority identification card; any government issued license; any card accepted by local, state or federal government for the provision of benefits; any card accepted by local, state or federal government for access to buildings, (http://www.sos.ga.gov/Gaphotoid/PAQ.htnill

 Non-photo identity documents include: an original birth certificate or certified copy of a birth certificate; certificate of birth registration; voter registration application; copy of records filed in a court by the applicant or on behalf of the applicant by the applicant’s counsel; naturalization documentation; copy of marriage license application; a copy of the applicant’s state or federal tax return filed for the previous calendar year; any other document issued by *733local, state, or federal government so long as the document provides a reasonably reliable confirmation of the identity of the applicant; paycheck or paycheck stub bearing the imprinted name of the applicant’s employer; an original of the annual social security statement received by the applicant for the current or preceding year; an original of a Medicare or Medicaid statement received by the applicant; certified school record or transcript for the current or preceding year; hospital birth certificate; an authenticated copy of a doctor’s record of post-natal care; a federal affidavit of birth, form DS-10. (http://www.sos.ga.gov/Gaphotoid/ TAQ.htmll

 http://www.sos.ga.gov/Gaphotoid/

 http://www.sos.georgia.gov/elRctions/vrinfo.htm