April 8, 2020
Lawsuit Challenges Postage on Mail-In Ballots as a Poll Tax
By Katheryn Tucker | The Daily Report | April 8, 2020
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The ACLU of Georgia filed a federal lawsuit Wednesday alleging that requiring voters to pay postage for mail-in ballots amounts to an unconstitutional poll tax.
“This case is about protecting American democracy at a time when we are facing a worldwide pandemic,” the complaint said. “Though the stakes are high, the legal claim is simple. The United States Constitution (through the Twenty-Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments) bans poll taxes. Georgia election officials require voters to use their own postage when submitting mail-in absentee ballots and applications. Postage costs money. Thus, Defendants have imposed a poll tax in violation of the Constitution.”
“Because of the pandemic, the number of voters who mail in ballots will skyrocket,” ACLU of Georgia Legal Director Sean J. Young said in a news release after filing the lawsuit in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia. “It is all the more imperative that unconstitutional barriers like this poll tax be removed immediately.”
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(Photo: John Disney/ALM)