Georgia Republicans in the legislature and Gov. Sonny Perdue have enacted a controversial new law that imposes onerous new documentation burdens for new voters and requires registration information to match records in the state driving database. This new law threatens to disenfranchise thousands of lawful voters and hamstring the efforts of nonpartisan registration groups.

The law's most widely-reported change forces new voters to submit documentation proving US citizenship (such as a passport or birth certificate) with their registration forms -– a requirement that has voting-rights advocates outraged:

The law revived a racially charged battle in Georgia. Critics complain it would disenfranchise poor and minority voters — many of them U.S. citizens — who lack required documents.

Starting Jan. 1, 2010 if Justice approves, the Georgia law would require all applying for voter registration to provide documented proof of U.S. citizenship. Those who stay on active voter rolls and have already registered before then would not have to submit such documents as a U.S. passport, naturalization documents or driver's license or birth certificate.

"It's tantamount to a poll tax," said Elise Shore, regional counsel for the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund. She said the group was considering a legal challenge if the law clears the Justice Department.

Another, arguably more worrying, section of the law orders the Secretary of State to verify all new registrations using the state’s Driver Services database.

Ohio faced this same issue in 2008, when Ohio Republicans sued to force the Democratic Secretary of State to perform similar database matching. In that case, which eventually went to the Supreme Court, independent analysts like NYU’s Brennan Center for Justice noted that such requirements routinely invalidate thousands of lawful voters –- sometimes at rates as high as 30 percent.

If upheld by Justice Department officials, who must evaluate the changes under Section 5 of the Voting Rights Act, the new law will likely make it much more difficult to register to vote, and it could leave thousands of lawful voters disenfranchised by clerical typos completely beyond their control.