Four Georgia State Senators, all Republicans, have introduced SB 377. It would require that no one could sign any type of ballot access petition, without first showing the circulator a government-photo ID. The circulator of the petition would be required to certify under penalty of perjury that everyone who signed his or her petition showed one of these: (1) a Georgia drivers license; (2) a Georgia state ID card; (3) a U.S. passport; (4) a government employee photo-ID; (5) a U.S. military ID; (6) a tribal photo-ID.
The four sponsors are Senators Buddy Carter of Pooler, Tommie Williams of Lyons, Joshua McKoon of Columbus, and Judson Hill of Marietta. In Georgia, candidates running in Democratic and Republican primaries never need to circulate any petition in order to get on the ballot, assuming they pay the filing fee.
Such a law, if enacted, would make it far more difficult to obtain signatures. Many signatures are collected in parks and beaches, where many of the signers may not have their wallets or purses with them. Furthermore, the law would slow the petitioning process, and also make it more difficult to persuade people to sign. Also, thousands of people don’t possess any of those documents and would lose their constitutional right to sign a petition. As far as is known, there has never been a law like this enacted in any state. Thanks to Garland Favorito for this news.
Redneck jackasses.
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Where is Gen. Sherman II to end the GA gerrymander regime and liberate GA again ???
Wow, this is an insane law. Ballot access in Georgia is already very difficult. This will make it far more difficult to get petitions signed because a lot of people won’t want to show their IDs, or they won’t have their IDs with them, or they won’t have time to show their IDs, or they may not even have an ID. I’d hate to have to gather petition signatures under these circumstances.
1 –
You have to hand it to Republicans. They know who their constituency is.
What percentage of the 1% don’t have a photo ID, do you think?
For younger folks —
Once upon a time long ago the Elephants were actually for some sort of Democracy — i.e. in the destruction of slavery in 1861-1865 and in enacting the 13th-14th-15th Amdts and enforcement laws in 1865-1875.
Starting with the rigged results in the 1876 Prez election, the Elephants became corrupt and EVIL.
The EVIL in the Elephants became really obvious after the 1964 Prez election — a mere 48 years of growing EVIL by monarchy/oligarchy wanabees.
The Democracy CRISIS may be in Nov. 2012.
It seems to me that the rationale for this is about as strong as the rationale for requiring photo id at the polls. Candidates shouldn’t be put on the ballot by people who are bona fide residents or voters any more than votes should be cast by such people. Once you start down this path, is there any end in sight? From my perspective this was a misbegotten enterprise from the beginning.
Whoops. “candidates should NOT be put on the ballot . . .”
What percent of the now infamous 1 percent sign ANY petition for any thing ???
How about making it a FELONY to sign a public office/issue petition if one is NOT a registered and qualified Elector in the petition area involved ???
Sorry — 1st Amdt petitions (signed by children, dogs, cats, birds, mentally ill, felons, etc.) are quite different from public office/issue petitions – which actually can have some effect on public governments.
What is the average cost to verify a signature on a petition ???