Voters’ victory

While many are working hard to get voters to the polls Tuesday, there is a concerted effort by others to deny citizens their most basic right — the vote. Voters scored a small victory, however, on Friday when a federal court overrode Georgia’s “exact match” law, which had blocked more than 3,000 naturalized citizens from casting a ballot.

Election officials were instructed to reject absentee ballots and voter applications if they determined that signatures on the paperwork didn’t exactly match. Voters were neither told whether their ballots were rejected nor offered any opportunity to contest the decision.

Brian Kemp, Georgia’s secretary of state and the GOP candidate in a tight race for governor, had used the protocol to suspend 53,000 voter applications, mostly filed by nonwhite voters. Voter advocates filed for an injunction when an Israeli immigrant and naturalized citizen, whose voter status was “pending,” was denied a ballot. A federal judge wrote, “The court does not understand how assuring that all eligible voters are permitted to vote undermines integrity of the election process.”

Claims of voter suppression have mushroomed in the run-up to the midterm elections. In almost all cases, the suppression efforts are led by Republicans who are currently in power but fear they might lose in an election. In North Dakota, Indian tribes had sued to invalidate what they viewed as a voter suppression law, but a federal court ruled Thursday the law can remain in effect, disqualifying 5,000 voters.

Voter suppression is becoming a norm and warping our democracy. Friday’s ruling was one small blow against this truly un-American practice.