Judge eases requirements under Georgia ‘exact match’ rule

A federal judge issued a ruling Friday removing barriers to voters flagged as noncitizens by Georgia’s “exact match” rules, easing their ability to vote in next week’s midterm election.

It’s a victory for Democrats, who had worried the rule could keep some of their voters away from the polls during Tuesday’s midterm elections. Democrats had been particularly worried the rule could hurt absentee and early voters from their party.

{mosads}They cast the decision as a win for Democrats and a defeat for the Georgia secretary of state, Brian Kemp, who is also the Republican candidate for governor.

“Another day, another major defeat for Brian Kemp’s voter suppression efforts,” Rebecca DeHart, executive director for the Democratic Party of Georgia, said in a statement.{mosads}

Voting rights has become a major issue in Kemp’s race against Democrat Stacey Abrams, who would be the nation’s first African-American woman governor if she wins. The two are locked in a tight race.

Kemp’s office largely shrugged off the decision. 

The “exact match” law marks an applicant’s registration as “pending” if the personal information on their voter registration form doesn’t exactly match the information from the state’s Department of Driver Services or the Social Security Administration.  

If marked “pending,” the applicant has 26 months to provide the accurate information.

In a separate decision this week, another Georgia judge ruled that absentee ballot applications in violation of this rule could not be thrown out.