DOJ approves Georgia voter photo ID rules News
DOJ approves Georgia voter photo ID rules

[JURIST] The US Department of Justice (DOJ) [official website] on Wednesday signed off on requirements for obtaining a photo ID card that citizens of Georgia [JURIST news archive] must present to vote in elections. Georgia's State Election Board [official website], which voted last week to clear the rules [summary and text, PDF], will meet Thursday to discuss whether the rules can be implemented before the primary election on July 18. The rules outline the documents that can be presented as proof of age, name, address and voter registration, including student ID cards, nursing home cards, pilot licenses, birth certificates, utility bills and bank statements. A law [text, PDF; bill summary] requiring the ID cards was passed by the Georgia legislature in January and the DOJ approved [JURIST report] the statute itself in April.

The ID cards are free to registered voters because the original version of the law was blocked [JURIST report] by a federal judge last year as an unconstitutional de facto poll tax. AP has more.