Is it constitutional to require voters to buy postage stamps for a mail-in absentee ballot? That’s a question that will soon be decided by a federal judge.
The ACLU of Georgia presented its case to the federal appeals court Wednesday on behalf of Black Voters Matter and two individual voters in Georgia. The group clams postage is a poll tax.
The issue at hand is rooted in the State of Georgia’s requirement that voters pay for the cost of ballot delivery via mail (i.e., postage stamps). The group argues that elections officials “can and do provide prepaid postage envelopes to cover the mailing costs of other voting-related materials submitted by voters.”
In its lawsuit, Black Voters Matter Fund et al v Raffensperger asks whether, in 2021, the State of Georgia can constitutionally charge mail-in voters up to $1.65 in postal fees to cover the administrative costs of ballot delivery by mail.
Relying on a 1965 U.S. Supreme Court case, the ACLU alleges that the acts of the state mimic those from the Civil Rights Era with regard to a ‘certificate of residence.’
In 1965, the Supreme Court held that it was unconstitutional for Virginia to charge voters $1.50 to cover the administrative costs of running an election, even if voters could avoid that fee by obtaining a “free” certificate of residence.
Georgia elections officials cannot open a popular early in-person voting location (such as Atlanta’s State Farm Arena), then charge voters $1.50 to vote at that location (i.e., to cover the costs of renting that space), even if voters can use other early voting locations for free.
“Requiring citizens to pay any amount of money to put postage on a ballot before it can be counted in an election is a poll tax and, therefore, an unconstitutional barrier to our sacred right to vote,” said Sean J. Young, legal director of the ACLU of Georgia.
Black Voters Matter Fund et al v. Raffensperger was filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, Atlanta Division, on April 8, 2020. The District Court dismissed the poll tax claim on August 11, 2020. The ACLU of Georgia appealed that decision and asks that the decision be reversed by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.
You can read the court documents below.
