In a 159-page ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Harold Murphy in Rome, who had previously halted enforcement of the law, lauded the state for its efforts to educate the public about the law.

"Plaintiffs simply have failed to prove that the photo ID requirement unduly or significantly burdens the right to vote," Murphy wrote.

Although Young does not have a driver's license, she has a ID card issued by the Rome Police Department, and her sons or friends can drive her to the registrar's office, Murphy noted. Even though Taylor's daughter would have to take off from work to drive him to the registrar's office, this is not an unconstitutional burden, the judge found.

Murphy could have ended the case after making those findings. Instead, he also ruled on the merits of the issue.

Murphy noted that his previous injunction hinged in large part on the fact that many voters who lacked a photo ID had no real notice of the requirement or knew how to get one or vote absentee. But the judge said recent evidence showed the state "made exceptional efforts" to contact voters in the 23 counties planning to hold local elections this month.

The plaintiffs, Murphy wrote, "are hard-pressed to show that voters in Georgia, in general, are not aware of the photo ID requirement."

Among the abuses catalogued by Judge Tom Lee were the paying of notaries public to visit voters and illegally mark their absentee ballots, manipulation of the registration rolls, importation of illegal candidates to run for county office, and publication of a list of voters, classified by race, who might have their ballots challenged. The judge criticized state political officials for being "remiss" in addressing the abuses. The U.S. Justice Department, which sued Noxubee officials under the Voting Rights Act, has called conditions there "the most extreme case of racial exclusion seen by the [department's] Voting Section in decades."

Explosive stuff, so why haven't you heard about it? Because the Noxubee case doesn't fit the media stereotype for voting rights abuses. The local political machine is run by Ike Brown, a twice-convicted felon. Mr. Brown is black, and the voters who were discriminated against were white.

Judge Lee concluded that Mr. Brown retained his power "by whatever means were necessary." According to the judge, Mr. Brown believed that "blacks, being the majority race in Noxubee County, should hold all elected offices, to the exclusion of whites." (Whites are 30% of the county's 12,500 people, but only two of the 26 elected county officials.) Judge Lee also criticized top officials of the state Democratic Party for "failing to take action to rectify [Mr. Brown's] abuses."