Georgia GOP works fervently to help poor get IDs needed for voting

[CatWoman]

:sarcasm:

Photo ID bus gets little use
Tour averages fewer than 11 cards a county

By CARLOS CAMPOS
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Published on: 12/19/05
The Georgia Licensing On Wheels bus was supposed to make it easier for elderly and poor people to get the photo identification they need to vote under a controversial new law.

The idea was to bring photo IDs to the estimated 300,000 voting age people who don't have driver's licenses. When announced by Gov. Sonny Perdue's office in August, officials said the bus could issue up to 200 ID cards per day.

But in three months of traveling the state, the aging bus has broken down three times and issued just 471 photo IDs. That's fewer than 11 per county visited.

Critics say the low numbers show that one 15-year-old bus is a feeble response to concerns that the law will disenfranchise poor, elderly and minority voters. Perdue says the numbers show ID cards for voting are not in great demand. Either way, Georgians getting IDs from the bus are happy not to stand in long lines at driver's license service centers.

The bus hit the road in September after the Legislature approved a law requiring Georgians to show a driver's license or another form of government-issued photo ID at the polls. Previously, Georgians could use several forms of nonphoto ID.

http://www.ajc.com/news/content/metro/1205/19metglowbus.html

[napi21]

1. Well, I live in Ga. and I sure hadn't heard of this License on Wheels!

I have a Ga. ID, but I waited in line at the DL service center to get mine.

I don't know about the age of the bus, but I'd love to know just what counties they visited! My guess is, if they went to a lot of sparsely populated rural areas, they're not going to find many people interested. Then there's the problem of people not being notified about this bus! I never heard anything about it, and I read the local paper EVERY DAY!

[CatWoman]

2. Some statistics (from the story):

BY THE NUMBERS

300,000: Estimated number of voting-age Georgians who don't have licenses (a)

153,000: Estimated number of Georgians over 60 who voted in 2004 who do not have government-issued photo ID (b)

200: Estimated maximum number of IDs licensing bus can issue per day (c)

471 : Number of IDs bus has issued in three months (d)

Sources: (a) Governor's office; (b) AARP Georgia; (c) Department of Driver Services; (d) DDS