http://onlineathens.com/stories/063006/ ... 0062.shtml

Voter ID a go
Cards to be printed for July 18 primary
By Vicky Eckenrode | Morris News Service | Story updated at 11:12 PM on Thursday, June 29, 2006
ATLANTA - County election officials can start printing free photo identification cards for people who want to vote in the upcoming primaries, the State Election Board said Thursday.

The board met Thursday, one day after the U.S. Department of Justice approved Georgia's current voter ID law, to support implementing the free ID cards in time for the July 18 primary.

Kathy Rogers, elections division director for the secretary of state's office, said local registrars would be receiving the official go-ahead today to issue the free cards.

The cards came about after a federal judge blocked lawmakers' first attempt in 2005 to change the eligibility rules for voting, requiring Georgians to show any one of six forms of photo identification issued by a government agency.


Among the judge's criticisms was that the plan included a $20 charge for someone to get a photo ID made if he or she did not already have a driver's license, or one of the other acceptable IDs.

Legislators this year updated the law, making the cards available at no charge in every county of the state.

They also set aside $211,000 for the State Election Board to develop an education campaign telling voters about the new requirements.

Board members, who had until today to divvy up the money, sharply disagreed over how to use those funds.

David Worley, the lone Democrat at Thursday's meeting, said money should be used to produce brochures explaining the change to the more than 675,000 Georgians the secretary of state's office estimates might not be prepared to vote because they do not have a driver's license or picture ID issued by the state's Department of Driver Services.

"These are the people we need to be targeting," Worley said.

But other board members were reluctant to acknowledge that figure, which was publicized by Secretary of State Cathy Cox, a Democratic candidate for governor and critic of the voter ID law. Cox did not attend Thursday's meeting.

Board member Randy Evans said the estimate was misleading because some of the people could own passports or state employee cards that also would allow them to vote. He said a direct mailing campaign later in the year would be ineffective because the brochures would be tossed into junk mail piles.

Instead, Evans pushed a letter that will be handed out to voters after they cast a ballot in the primary that explains to them the accepted forms of identification as well as the fact that absentee voting does not require a photo ID.

Worley lashed out at the idea to spend money reaching voters who have already cast their ballots and obviously do not need to know about the ID requirements.

"You've have no intention of getting the word out to the people because you've never had any intention of this voter ID proposal of being anything but a way of disenfranchising voters in this state," he told the other board members.

The board ultimately agreed to spend $57,000 on the poll letters; $43,000 for radio public service announcements that will run in the weeks leading up to the primary and the general election in November; and the remaining $111,000 on brochures that will be passed out to interest groups, county election officials and poll workers.

FORMS OF ID

Here are the acceptable forms of photo identification that will be needed for the July 18 primary. Voters must show one of them before voting. If they do not already own one, they can visit their local voter registrar's office to receive a free

photo ID.

Georgia driver's license or state Department of Driver Services ID card

Valid U.S. military ID card

Valid state or federal government issued ID card

Valid state or federal government employee ID card

Valid U.S. passport

Valid tribal ID card