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Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp
In an interview today more reminscent of a conversation with your next-door neighbor,Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp talked about military voters and Georgia's recent legislative changes regarding military voters and their accessibility to the election processes.
Military voters have had difficult times voting in local and national elections simply because of time and distance. While many states have been dragging their feet on compliance with the MOVE Act, The Secretary of State's office and the Georgia Legislature have allowed no grass to grow under their feet on this issue. The Federal MOVE Act was designed to help with this and in the early part of the year the Georgia Legislature passed HB 1073 which is a state law that essentially complies with the Federal statute. For the first time in history, Military voters from the state of Georgia will be able to access their ballots online instead of waiting for these ballots to be mailed to them. The ballots are printed, completed, and mailed back for tabulation by the state after which the counties are notified of these counts. It is a sea change that has been supported by Secretary Kemp's office in addition to HB 665. HB 665, which was sponsored by Representative Mark Hamilton, is a giant leap forward in that it provides for a pilot program to be developed by the Secretary of State's office which will allow military voters to vote whereever they are in the world electronically, eliminating the mailing process.
On a companion subject, the Mr. Kemp indicated that the prevention of voter fraud was high on his office's priority list and as such, the State's litigation efforts against the U.S. Department of Justice were continuing. The root issue for this lawsuit is that Georgia contends that it is only proper to ask for reasonable identification for a voter to register and vote in elections. Groups such as the ACLU and other activist organizations complain that the idea that identification should be required eliminates qualified voters from the voter registration rolls.
For activist groups, as is the case in states such as Illinois, a pulse should be sufficient. Or maybe that is asking for too much as well. It is clear in Georgia that the standard is a bit higher. The voter needs to be who they say they are, a citizen of Georgia, and a citizen of the United States. This seems pretty reasonable.
There is a very helpful "My Voter Page" that allows for searching registration information by county. Click on the link or go to: http://www.sos.georgia.gov/MVP/Login.aspx
The Secretary of State's office has a website set up for citizens to notify them regarding potential voter fraud.
For more info:For Military Voter Registration information: http://www.sos.georgia.gov/elections/uocava/ . For information regarding voter fraud: http://www.sos.ga.gov/stopvoterfraud/
Comments
Uncalled for smears! Just part of the right wing echo chamber using talking points based on lies to to stir up their bases:
Admin Responds To Military Voters Smear Made By John Cornyn, J. Christian Adams
..."The Department of Justice is firmly committed to ensuring that our men and women serving in the uniformed services and living overseas have the opportunity to vote and to have their votes counted. Any suggestion to the contrary is simply untrue," Weich wrote, adding that Cornyn took statements from a DOJ official "out of context."
"There should be no misunderstanding: we fully enforce the law," he said.
Weich went on to explain that the opportunity to seek waivers is required by the MOVE Act...
See talkingpoints memo's coverage
Doc: I am lost. Where are the perceived smears? DOJ was not smeared in this article in the least bit. DOJ has taken actions against Georgia seeking to limit the amount of documentation required to legally enroll a voter and/or allow them to cast a ballot. The DOJ seems to prefer (by way of their lawsuit) that Illinois methods or those in many other states that require nearly zero documentation. The fine folks at the Georgia Secretary of State's office think that leaves things ripe for fraud.
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