This lawsuit challenges two recently enacted rules
adopted by the State Election Board
(“SEB”) in Georgia that impose severe restrictions on voter
registration activity by private, non-deputized groups. Under these
new regulations, each completed voter registration application is
required to be sealed by the applicant before being handed to a
private registration worker. In addition, the regulation prohibits
the copying of completed voter registration forms.
The Complaint alleges that the new SEB rules violate
the
National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and the First and
Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution by imposing severe
and unreasonable restrictions on plaintiffs’ federally protected
right to engage in organized voter registration activity and by
interfering with plaintiffs’ rights to engage in core political
speech and to associate with one another and the public to encourage
increased voter registration and civic participation in
traditionally disadvantaged communities. The new rules also
contradict recent federal court decisions in the
Charles H.
Wesley Education Foundation v. Cathy Cox case, which
invalidated earlier attempts by Georgia's election officials to
restrict private voter registration activity.
The plaintiff organizations in this case are the
Association of Community
Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN),
Project Vote, the
Georgia Coalition for the People’s Agenda; and the
Georgia State Conference of NAACP
Branches. These groups have moved for a preliminary injunction
to bar enforcement of the SEB’s restrictions while the lawsuit is
pending.
Plaintiffs are represented in this case by
Bradley E. Heard of
The Heard Law Offices, LLC,
with assistance from Project Vote’s regional director and counsel,
Brian W. Mellor, and from Elizabeth Westfall and Estelle Rogers of
the Advancement Project
in Washington, DC.
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