DeKalb County will pay $82,500 to settle a lawsuit filed last year that alleged the county was unlawfully purging voters from the rolls in violation of federal law.
The DeKalb County Board of Commissioners voted unanimously (7-0-0) on Tuesday to approve settlement of a lawsuit filed in February 2020 by the Georgia State Conference of the NAACP and the Georgia Coalition for People's Agenda against the DeKalb County Board of Registration & Elections.
The lawsuit (1:20-CV-00879-ELR) alleged that the county was "unlawfully purging voters from the DeKalb County registration rolls in violation of the National Voter Registration Act of 1993 and the First and Fourteenth Amendments to the U.S. Constitution." It asked that the county be prevented from purging voters from the rolls until the county receives written confirmation from the voter of a change of address, or the county provides proper notice and waits two federal election cycles.
The lawsuit also contended that the county election board was improperly asking for information from cities regarding the validity of some voter registrations. It said this violated the U.S. Constitution because it improperly discriminated against voters "residing in transitional housing or non-traditional residences."
After a lengthy executive session, the BOC voted 7-0-0 to settle the case with a requirement that the lawsuit be dismissed with prejudice. The payment is to go to the plaintiffs and their legal counsel as part of a settlement agreement, release and waiver of claims.
The county had tried to argue that the DeKalb County Board of Registration & Elections is protected from federal lawsuits by sovereign immunity. However, U.S. District Judge Eleanor Ross rejected that claim in September 2020, ruling that county boards of elections in Georgia are not “arms of the state,” even when determining voter eligibility.
In 2019, the American Civil Liberties Union of Georgia and the Lawyers' Committee for Civil Rights Under Law said the DeKalb County Board of Registration & Elections had purged voters who used the Decatur address of a center for people with mental disabilities who need housing to avoid psychiatric hospitalization. The elections board said it removed the voters because the address was not a "residence."
In an August 2019 letter to the county elections board, the ACLU said "neither state nor federal law grants election officials the authority to judge what constitutes housing, especially for those hardest hit by life's struggles."
"Election officials must be vigilant when considering challenges or requests to disenfranchise people that are based on Google Maps or their preconceived notions of what a 'residence' looks like," the ACLU said in its letter. "It is morally wrong for government officials to judge where someone calls home," ACLU Georgia legal director Sean Young said at the time.
