Earlier this year Georgia passed a law requiring residents to present ID at polling places before they vote. If you don't have a driver's license, you have to pay $10 to get a state ID card. The purpose of the bill was to "protect the integrity of the voting process" and prevent voter fraud. Sociologically, this will obviously affect the elderly, the poor, and minorities dispraportionally. But it looks like the authors of the bill already knew that:

The chief sponsor of Georgia's voter identification law told the Justice Department that if black people in her district "are not paid to vote, they don't go to the polls," and that if fewer blacks vote as a result of the new law, it is only because it would end such voting fraud.

The newly released Justice Department memo quoting state Rep. Sue Burmeister (R-Augusta) was prepared by department lawyers as the federal government considered whether to approve the new law. […]

Burmeister said Thursday that the memo's record of what she said "was more accurate than not," but added: "That sounds pretty harsh. I don't remember saying those exact words."

And they wonder why African-Americans don't vote for Republicans.

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