Advance voting begins Monday

GAINESVILLE - If you are not among those who have taken advantage of "no questions asked" absentee balloting in Georgia for the July 18 primaries, you will have another option starting Monday: advance voting.

In Gainesville you can do that, through Friday, at the elections office at Pearl Nix Parkway and Dawsonville Highway, but be prepared to show some form of picture ID.

With less than two weeks to go before the primary, a Superior Court judge on Friday issued a restraining order blocking enforcement of Georgia's voter ID law, but the state has required identification at the polls for some now and Phillips Lea says most people have used their driver's license.

"The Court finds the current statute unduly burdens the fundamental right to vote rather than regulate it and irreparable harm will result if the 2006 Photo ID law is not enjoined," Fulton County Superior Court Judge Melvin Westmoreland wrote.

Former Georgia Gov. Roy Barnes, a Democrat, had argued in court on Thursday that the law violates the state's constitution, which guarantees the right to vote. Barnes said it would keep poor, elderly and minority voters from the polls.

Georgia's new ID law requires that every voter who casts a a ballot in person provide a valid, government-issued photo ID.

But Judge Westmoreland, who was appointed to the bench by former Democratic Gov. Zell Miller, said Friday that the 17 forms of ID, some with photos and some without, that had been allowed in previous elections can be used at the polls for the primary. Voters who lack one of those IDs can also continue to attest to their identity under oath.

There is also a federal challenge pending to the state's voter ID law. Arguments in that case are scheduled for Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Rome, Ga.

Georgia's Republican-led state Legislature first adopted a voter ID law in 2005, but a federal judge blocked its enforcement saying it amounted to an unconstitutional poll tax. Early this year, lawmakers amended the law to make the IDs free and to ensure they are available in each of the state's 159 counties.

Even though advance voting begins Monday at election officies all over the state, you can, however, still vote by mail, but ballots must be in the hands of election officials by 7 p.m. election day.

(The Associated Press contributed to this story.)