Georgia Weighs ‘Ineligible Voter’ Tag on Non-Citizen Licenses

A bill stipulating that non-U.S. citizen driver’s licenses be stamped with the words “Ineligible Voter” passed a significant hurdle in the Georgia legislature Monday when it sailed through the House Public Safety Committee.

The HB 324 bill, sponsored by Georgia state Rep. Alan Powell (R-Hartwell), initially sought to stamp the word “noncitizen” on driver’s licenses belonging to immigrants legally residing in the U.S., before opting instead to use the “Ineligible Voter” designation, according to Patch.com. Georgia’s current license administered to non-citizens only includes the designation “limited term.”

“A driver’s license is the first form of an ID that people have and obviously I just didn’t take into account for political correctness.”

“We’re not trying to label anybody. We’re not trying to discriminate. We’re just trying to make it plain English where everybody understands,” said Rep. Jason Ridley (R-Chatsworth), the bill’s co-sponsor, according to the Moultrie Observer.

Ridley added that the “Ineligible Voter” designation mattered because driver’s licenses are used so extensively during the voting process. In addition, Ridley said the new designation would aid law enforcement officials when they are interacting with these non-citizens and signal that there could be a language barrier.

But Georgia’s Democrats, voting rights activists, and the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia vehemently opposed Powell’s piece of legislation when it initially included the “noncitizen” stipulation, insisting that the bill “targets immigrants” — even though the bill’s sponsors said they were seeking to offer further clarity with the identification process.

“The ACLU of Georgia opposes HB 324 because it is an unnecessary and discriminatory piece of legislation,” the organization said in a statement when Powell initially proposed the bill.

In response to the backlash, Powell allowed the bill to be tweaked to swap out the “noncitizen” designation for the less controversial “Ineligible Voter.”

“A driver’s license is the first form of an ID that people have and obviously I just didn’t take into account for political correctness,” Powell said, NPR affiliate WABE reported.

Nevertheless, Georgia’s Senate Public Safety Committee also added its voice to the debate when it approved a bill sponsored by Sen. Frank Ginn (R-Danielsville), which stipulated that vertical licenses be issued to noncitizens, instead of the standard horizontally printed ones.

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Both Ginn and Powell said their respective bills would aid in bolstering the state’s democratic election process and ensure that illegal voting does not occur.

Since 2014, Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp’s office has investigated four cases of “attempts to register as non-citizens or alleged non-citizen voting,” according to a spokesperson. The state denies that any illegal voting occurred on Election Day in November.

Although illegal aliens are ineligible to receive Georgia state driver’s licenses in most cases, the state does allow some licenses to be temporarily issued with the designation of “deferred action status” to those who qualify for former President Obama’s Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program.