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Chocolate Lovers Rejoice
Exciting New Pastries St Cakes!
THE ATHENS LAND TRUST &
THE OCONEE RIVER LAND TRUST
PRESENT THE 3RD ANNUAL:
Art Exhibit & Sale
March 25 - March 31/2007
Opening reception: Sunfiay March 25,1-4 pm, Botanical Garden Conservatory
THE FINAL ARGUMENT? NOT QUITE.
The two-year battle over Georgia's voter
identification law has now made it to the state
Supreme Court, which heard arguments Mar. 12
on the appeal of a lower court decision that
ruled the voter ID requirement was a violation
of the Georgia Constitution. It is expected to
be several weeks before the justices rule on the
matter, but their decision likely won't be the
final resolution. This one is guaranteed to go
on and on for years to come. No matter what
the Supreme Court does, there is still a federal
lawsuit pending before U.S. District Judge Harold
Murphy. He has already indicated in a previous
ruling that the requirement to show a gov
ernment-issued photo identification card
before being allowed to cast a ballot
may violate the U.S. Constitution.
If the Supreme Court rules that the
voter ID law is constitutional, the
action will ping-pong right back
into Murphy's courtroom.
The voter ID issue has been
a bitterly divisive one ever since
Republican legislators first passed
it—and Republican Gov. Sonny Perdue
signed it—over the angry protests of
Democrats. Perdue and his GOP allies con
tend that the photo ID requirement is necessary
to prevent election day fraud. Democrats just as
strongly maintain that the measure is a partisan
attempt to hold down election turnout by African
Americans, Latinos and elderly people who are
more likely to vote for Democratic candidates.
Fulton County Superior Court Judge T. Ja r kson
Bedford overturned the voter ID requirement last
September, ruling that the law violated a state
constitutional provision affording the right to
vote to Georgia residents who are U.S. citizens at
least 18 years of age and have registered to vote.
"There is nothing irt this law that denies one per
son the right to vote," said Mark Cohen, Senior
Assistant Attorney General, in his argument to
the high court last week. He called Bedford's
decision "unprecedented, and I would submit
to the court, with all respect to the court be
low, not supported by the Georgia Constitution,
against the plenary authority of the General
Assembly, and just defying common sense.
"There has to be a mechanism by which elec
tion officials are able to confirm the identity of
a person voting at the polls," Cohen said, noting
officials are already authorized to compare the
signatures on absentee ballots to verify that the
person casting the ballot is a registered voter.
One of the justices, however, suggested that
Georgia's lawmakers have in the past placed
roadblocks in the path of certain people who
wanted to cast a ballot. "This state has had a
long and at times checkered history on the right
to vote," observed Justice Robert Benham, the
first black jurist appointed to the Supreme Court.
He was referring to past laws that required black
voters to pass literacy tests or pay poll taxes, ef
fectively prohibiting them from voting.
The argument over voter ID, on one
level, is an attempt to re-fight the 2002
battle for governor. Roy Barnes filed
the lawsuit challenging the voter ID
law on behalf of Rosalind Lake, a
visually impaired black woman who
was prevented from voting in last
year's primary election when she
tried to use a MARTA card, which
is not one of the approved forms
of identification listed in the voter
ID law. "When she went to vote, they
said, 'On no, that is not a government-
issued photo ID,"' Barnes said in his dra
matic courtroom style.
"You've got to go through jumping hoops" to
obtain the photo ID required by the new law to
vote, Barnes said, contending that this places an
unreasonable burden on a person's constitution
ally guaranteed right to vote. "To vote requires
greater proof than to put a man to death!" he
said in mock outrage. "To put a man to death,
we require them [trial witnesses] to take an oath
and testify in a court of law," but do not require
them to show a government-issued photo ID.
Barnes agreed with Benham, saying, "the
history of Georgia has been checkered in voting,
let's face it.... We only want a certain number of
people, a certain color of people, to vote. That's
our history." That history ensures the fight over
voter identification will continue to rage long
after the state Supreme Court rules on it.
Tom Crawford
Tom Crawford is the editor of Capitol Impact's Georgia
Report, an Internet news site at www.ciclt.net/garpt/that
covers government and politics in Georgia.
THIS MSIIIH W*BL»
THE. SPIN: THE. PATRIOT ACT IS
A VITAL COMPONENT OF THE WAR
ON TERROR WHICH WILL NEVER,
EVER BE ABUSED BY AWT GOV
ERNMENT agency:
reality: Robert mueller ad
mits that THE FBI HAS ROUTINELY
ABUSED THE PATRIOT ACT,’ SAYS
‘’MI5TAKES WERE MADE."
—BUT DlDJA HEAR
ABOUT THE FAKE
WALTER REED
SCANDAL?
by TOM TOMORROW
THE SPIN*. CONDITIONS AT WALTER
REED WERE BLOWN OUT Of PRO
PORTION BY A FEW, SLOVENLY MAL
CONTENTS AND THEIR ENABLERS IN
THE BUSH-HATING MEDIA.
THE MICE WERE ATTRACTED BY AU.
THE DIRT* DISHES AND TAKE
OUT CONTAINERS they left
LYING AROUND*
Gala Event: Saturday March 31, 7-10 pm, Botanical Garden Terrace Room
Wine-tasting by Gosford Wines, hors d’oeuvres by Donderos Kitchen, silent auction &
art sale. Music by Tin Cup Prophette
Purchase your tickets at Gosford Wine or Homeplace Gifts or call
Oconee River Land Trust at 706.552.3138 or
Athens Land Trust at 706.613.0122
$35 advance; $40 at the door
REALITY: TWO TOP ARMY OFFICIALS
ARE FORCED TO RESIGN; FORMER
HEAD OF WALTER REED IS FIRED,'
TELLS CONGRESS THAT ''MISTAKES
WERE MADE." „
the spin; eight u.s. attorneys
WERE FIRED for completely
LEGITIMATE PEFORMANCE-RELATED
REASONS HAVING NOTHING WHAT
SOEVER TO DO WITH PARTISAN
reality: attorneys were being
RANKED BY THEIR LOYALTY TO THE
bush agenda; alberto gonzales
NERVOUSLY ADMITS THAT "MISTAKES
WERE MADE."
UM—WELL
MOVING
RIGHT
ALONG—
— DlDJA HEAR
ABOUT THE FAKE
US. ATTORNEY
SCANDAL?
OH, ENOUGH ALREADY. 1 WHY DO
LIBERALS HATE PEOPLE WHO MAKE
MISTAKES?
YOU'D HAVE TO BE A TINFOIL-HAT
CONSPIRACY NUT to find ANY
THING SUSPICIOUS IN THATi
I TO ERR IS HUMAN
TO FORGIVE REPUBLI
CANS. DIVINE!
WHY DO LIBERALS HATE
[CLEAN, NON-BEHEADED
PEOPLE WHO BELIEVE
WHAT THEY'RE TOLD?
CERTAIN -ns BE CONTINUED
POLITICS
6 FLAGPOLE.COM • MARCH 21,2007
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