On October 10, 2014, the Lawyers’ Committee, along with pro bono counsel, filed a lawsuit in the Fulton County, Georgia superior court seeking to compel State and county election officials to process more than 50,000 voter registration applications that had been gathered during registration drives conducted by the New Georgia Project and the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP in 2014.
The plaintiffs’ voter registration drives were aimed at increasing voter registration among African Americans, Latinos, and other underrepresented communities. Over 80,000 voter registration applications were collected during these drives, but more than 50,000 of the applications could not be accounted for on the State’s voter registration or “pending” lists at the time the suit was filed. As a result, there was an imminent danger that thousands of eligible Georgians would be disenfranchised since early voting was set to begin on October 13, 2014, and the general election was less than a month away.
After the suit was filed, plaintiffs entered into settlement agreements with two of the counties (Chatham and DeKalb). A hearing on plaintiffs’ request for relief against the Secretary of State and three remaining counties (Clayton, Fulton, and Muscogee) was held on October 24, 2014. At the hearing, the court heard arguments from counsel, but declined to receive testimony from Georgians who submitted timely applications and were qualified to vote, but had not been placed on the State’s registration list prior to the hearing.
On October 28, 2014, the superior court dismissed the lawsuit. Citing a Georgia supreme court decision that did not involve the right to vote or voter registration, the court held that election officials in Georgia are held only to a “substantial compliance” standard in processing voter registration applications, even though thousands of the applications from plaintiffs’ registration drives were still not accounted for on the State’s registration rolls or pending list by the time of the hearing. The Court also concluded that the suit was premature on the ground that there is no express deadline under state law for processing registration applications and county officials were continuing to process applications. The court further noted that individuals whose applications had not been processed could cast a provisional ballot, although provisional ballots cast by individuals who are not registered to vote are not counted.
After the November 2014 election, plaintiffs confirmed that thousands of these registration applicants never made it onto the voter registration rolls by election day. The Lawyers’ Committee is continuing to actively investigate this matter and plans to take further appropriate remedial action if it is determined that State or local election officials violated the rights of eligible Georgians to register and vote in the 2014 general election.
Plaintiffs’ petition for writ of mandamus Click Here
Superior court decision Click Here
