Georgia Absentee Ballot Postage Not a Poll Tax, 11th Cir. Says

Georgia’s failure to pay the cost of postage for absentee ballots returned by mail doesn’t amount to an unconstitutional poll tax because it’s just the cost of having a ballot delivered rather than dropping it off in person, according to a Friday ruling by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit.

Black Voters Matter Fund LLC, along with two individually named plaintiffs, sought to have the state’s statutory framework for absentee voting declared unconstitutional and an injunction requiring the state to pay the postage for returning absentee ballots.

But the theory that the state imposes a “tax” by ...