Voting Rights

Governor Brian Kemp today signed into law HB 392, which has a provision requiring Georgia’s secretary of state to take steps to shore up the security of the state’s voter registration database.  The move comes just weeks after Gov. Kemp signed HB 316, which included new protections for Georgia voters who are required to cast provisional ballots. These bills were passed in direct response to a lawsuit brought on behalf of Common Cause Georgia by the Brennan Center for Justice at NYU School of Law, along with Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton, & Garrison LLP, and Sugarman LLP.

Judge Eleanor Louise Ross of the U.S. District Court for Northern District of GA today ordered that Georgia voters whose registration applications had been left pending under the state's “Exact Match” program are now allowed to exercise their right to vote in the midterm election on November 6. The full order is accessible here: https://bit.ly/2CXY3iQ

Common Cause joined the Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law and other civil rights organizations in suing Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp for the state’s discriminatory and unlawful “exact match” voter suppression scheme.