ATLANTA, GA — A federal judge has found Georgia’s citizenship verification process does not violate the U.S. Constitution as claimed by several groups in a complaint, per a news release from State Secretary Brad Raffensperger.
U.S. District Court Judge Eleanor Ross ruled Thursday to grant Raffensperger’s motion to dismiss claims brought forth in 2022 in the Fair Fight Action case, where the groups maintained the state process also violated the Voting Rights Act and the National Voter Registration Act.
“Ensuring that only U.S. citizens vote in our elections is critically important to secure and accurate elections,” Raffensperger said in a news release. “Georgia’s citizenship verification process is common sense and it works. With this ruling, we are able to continue ensuring that only U.S. citizens are voting in our elections.”
Ross made the ruling after three days of testimony and after “plaintiffs failed to prove that the voting rights of naturalized citizens are violated when they have to show papers or get a new state ID before they can vote,” the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported.
New Georgia Project, Common Cause Georgia, GALEO Latino Community Development Fund, ProGeorgia State Table, Asian-Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta and the Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda brought forth the lawsuit.
Since 2022, only U.S. citizens have voted in Georgia elections, per the AJC, citing an audit.
Raffensperger said the current verification process will be practiced in this year’s election.
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