Postage Stamp Poll Tax
“We are encouraged that the court will continue to consider our claim that postage could be an unconstitutional burden on Georgian voters,” said Sean Young, legal director of the ACLU of Georgia. The judges also rejected arguments that Georgia violated the equality clause by discriminating against mail-in voters who do not pay shipping costs, writing that “Georgia does not deny any voter the right to vote” by “offering the possibility of sending mail-in ballots.” The lawsuit asked a judge to declare the requirement unconstitutional and order the state to stop requiring voters to provide their own stamps to vote by mail. The 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution prohibits any condition of the right to vote in a federal election of the payment of a voting fee. A 1966 Supreme Court case found that “the state`s conditioning of the right to vote to pay a royalty or tax violates the equality clause of the Fourteenth Amendment.” Although many states passed explicit voting taxes before the 24th Amendment (ratified in 1964), these taxes were explicitly unconstitutional thereafter. Fees associated with voting are often disputed as de facto voting taxes. “The new theory that the plaintiffs are asking us to have — that Georgia levies a `tax` by not paying for a service (postage) to help voters who choose to vote by absentee ballot and then choose to return their ballot by mail — is simply not valid,” the statement said. The new decision concerns a challenge by the Black Voters Matter Fund and two people in Georgia who claimed that paying shipping for mail in a mail-in ballot violated the U.S. equality clause. The Fourteenth Amendment violated the Twenty-fourth Amendment`s prohibition on levying a voting fee. While the scope of this case was limited to the postage requirement, Totenberg wrote that the plaintiffs “provided convincing evidence that the state`s handling of the June 2020 elections was fraught with pitfalls, including numerous cases where voters did not receive their absentee ballots and, as a result, were unnecessarily exposed to the virus.” A federal appeals court has confirmed that Georgian voters must pay their shipping costs when sending ballots, saying the cost of a voting tax is “frivolous.” Dowdell noted that absentee Oklahoma voters “can avoid postage altogether and return their absentee ballots to the county elections committee before 5 p.m.m.m.
received shipping costs from third parties on the eve of the election” and concluded that any burden to which postal voters are exposed as a result of the payment of shipping costs is “light” and does not constitute a violation of constitutional rights. Oklahoma Democrats have also argued that paying postage for sending a ballot is a form of voting tax, which raises the issue during the 2020 Legislature, when lawmakers passed a law requiring absentee voters to attach a photocopy of their ID with their ballot as a measure of election security. “We believe that the fact that absentee voters in Georgia who choose to vote by mail must pay their own shipping costs is not a `tax` or an unconstitutional fee to vote,” District Judge Elizabeth Branch wrote in a 15-page decision. The State of Georgia gives voters the opportunity to vote by mail. However, voters who opt for this option must either pay for the 55-cent stamp for their ballot to be deposited at the district election office, or put their vote in district brackets themselves. The Oklahoma Democratic Party has filed a lawsuit to remove several provisions of Oklahoma`s election law, including a ban on the collection of votes and identification requirements for mail-in voters. That challenge also argued that the payment of shipping costs constituted a voting tax. The lawsuit filed by the Black Voters Matter Fund and the American Civil Liberties Union had claimed that the stamp collection violated the 24th Amendment to the U.S.
Constitution, which prohibits restrictions on the right to vote due to non-payment of a tax. The plaintiffs wanted the government to provide prepaid shipping for postal votes. While voters can still vote early or in person on election day, the lawsuit argues that the ability to vote in person “doesn`t really exist because of the pandemic” and is also nearly impossible for some elderly or disabled voters. Some voters do not have stamps on hand and cannot or do not want to go to the post office and are at risk of being exposed to the coronavirus, the lawsuit says, adding that these voters may also not have access to the internet or credit cards to buy stamps online. Totenberg noted that the plaintiffs did not provide enough evidence to show that their burden outweighed the interests of the state after only providing an explanation to a voter who had to vote in person because she could not afford a stamp, and no explanation of voters who wanted to use a mailbox but could not. But it allows this part of the lawsuit to move forward and that “discovery and factual development may be able to strengthen the plaintiffs` claims.” The court also quickly dropped the plaintiffs` argument that the stamp fee violated the same protection because it discriminated against voters who did not vote in person. The court ruled that the price of stamps is nothing more than the cost of voting. “While voting often involves incidental costs such as transportation, parking, childcare, time off and, for those who choose to vote by mail, the cost of a stamp, these incidental costs do not mean that Georgia has imposed a voting tax or unconstitutional fee on its constituents,” the statement said. A federal judge on Tuesday rejected an argument that requiring voters to submit their own stamps for absentee ballots and voting requests amounts to an unconstitutional voting tax. A lawsuit filed in April by the American Civil Liberties Union and its Georgia Chapter asserted that the postage requirement does impose a voting tax and imposes an undue burden on the right to vote. The challenge was raised on behalf of voters and a group that wants to empower communities of color, the Black Votes Matter Fund.
A federal appeals court has upheld the dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Black Voters Matter over Georgia`s requirement that voters pay for their own stamps on absentee ballots. The court not only dismissed the group`s case, saying the stamp costs amounted to an unconstitutional “voting tax,” but even went so far as to say that the claims “border on frivolous.” “The fact that any registered voter can vote on Election Day in Georgia without purchasing a stamp and without taking `additional steps,` except to run in the district and comply with generally applicable election regulations, requires the conclusion that stamps are not voting taxes,” Totenberg wrote in his order Tuesday. A federal judge has rejected an argument from the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) alleging that Georgia`s postage requirement for absentee ballots is equivalent to a voting fee. U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg in Atlanta had previously refused to order the state to provide non-shipping envelopes for the June primaries and Tuesday`s runoff. But it had backed a decision on The November parliamentary elections, saying it had in the meantime considered additional party submissions. The judges of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th District ruled that paying shipping for sending a mail-in ballot is not an unconstitutional voting tax. An interest group`s request to declare postal voting unconstitutional was returned to the sender.
“The cost of a stamp. [This does not mean] that Georgia imposed an unconstitutional voting tax or voting fee on its voters,” reads the statement from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit. Totenberg acknowledged the potential difficulties of voting in person, especially during a pandemic, but said his availability means postage is not an unconstitutional voting tax. The Black Voters Matter filed a lawsuit in April 2020 challenging Georgia`s rule that mail-in voters must purchase their own postage from the U.S. Postal Service. At the district court level, the plaintiffs lost. U.S.
District Judge Amy Totenberg (a judge appointed by Barack Obama) ruled that even given the difficulties of personal voting during the COVID-19 pandemic, the price of a stamp is not an unconstitutional voting tax. The Associated Press reported Tuesday that U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg`s decision ended a months-long case that had previously led Totenberg to also refuse to order the state to provide stamped envelopes to state voters. Totenberg noted that the state estimates the cost of prepaid postage at between $450,000 and $4.2 million, depending on voter turnout, at a time when the pandemic is already weighing on budgets. The cost of 58 cents for a first-class stamp is not a tax, according to the court. Instead, the cost is the price of a U.S. mail delivery service…
- On March 22, 2022
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