GA- Justice Department approves Georgia voter verification system
11:30 am August 23, 2010, by Aaron Gould Sheinin


Secretary of State Brian Kemp said Monday that the Justice Department has given final preclearance to a controversial state system of verifying voters’ identification and citizenship.


The voter verification system has been tied up in federal court since 2008 and the Justice Department has repeatedly refused to approve the process by which the state checks voter registration information against drivers license and Social Security databases.


But Kemp said Monday the federal government had signed off on the program, two months after he sued the Justice Department in federal court in search of approval. The Justice Department in 2008, then under Republican President George W. Bush, first questioned the system and said federal law required the state to verify a voter’s identity, but not his or her citizenship.

Kemp indicated in a statement that the Justice Department approved the project in response to the lawsuit. Both the state and the DOJ have filed paperwork with the court to dismiss the lawsuit.

“When we filed the lawsuit, I was criticized by some because they believed it would be too time-consuming and expensive,â€