Much is being made about the United States Department of Justice rejecting a policy implemented by the Georgia Secretary of State to check the citizenship status of voters, a policy that the SOS claims is required by law and upheld by federal courts.

While I completely agree that only legal Georgia citizens should be allowed to vote, the election process in our state is not all that fair, open or transparent and that's not any one person's fault. This has been the status quo for years.

Karen Handel is a friend of mine. I respect her, but I disagree with her on some issues concerning elections. It’s important to remember that people can have an honest disagreement and remain friends. This shouldn’t be construed as a condemnation of the job she’s done as Secretary of State. She certainly has done a lot to cut down on waste inside the department, encouraged voters to get in engaged in the process and bent over backwards to ensure a smooth process with the new voter ID law. I don't buy into the Kathrine Harris conspiracies that Georgia Democrats have tossed at her. She's made herself accessible to the media and bloggers, such as myself.

You cannot truly have a fair and open election process until all parties are given the same access to the ballot that Democrats and Republicans enjoy. For those of you who don’t know, Georgia has some of the most restrictive ballot access laws in the United States, behind Oklahoma and West Virginia, with the latter taking steps to improve ballot access this year.

It's not enough in most races for a third party candidate to just pay a filing fee and get on the ballot. He would also have to circulate a petition and receive signatures from 5 percent of registered voters in the district (legislative or local) that he wishes to run in. The requirement is waved for statewide candidates, though at least one statewide candidate has to meet a certain threshold for the party to retain ballot access for the next cycle.

Outside of the Libertarian Party, there are at least two parties in Georgia that cannot compete simply because the bar is set so high (signatures from 1 percent of registered voters).

While a relaxation of ballot access laws must be passed by the legislature, an endorsement of the idea from the supervisor of elections in the State of Georgia could go a long way and possibly could even open up some dialogue with legislative leaders.

As far as transparency goes, the state still has not implemented a verifiable ballot. Elections mean nothing unless voters have faith in the system and the way to help is to provide a voter with a receipt verifying his or her vote.

The watchdog group, Voter GA, recently circulated a document pointing out that during her 2006 campaign, Secretary Handel ran on a platform that promoted a verifiable ballot.

Voter GA’s assertion that Secretary Handel has a conflict of interest is a bit over the top in my view, assuming they mean she should resign from office or withdraw from the Republican Party primary for Governor. I think Cathy Cox proved that holding the office of Secretary of State does not give a leg up while campaigning for higher office.

The Secretary of State's office has explored a verifiable ballot, but has concluded that the cost would be millions (a 2006 article puts the cost at $19 million to as high as $75 million, but the cost depended on retrofitting current machines or buying new ones). Given the budget climate, I can understand that right now may not be the time to make a push for this, but I'm sure money could have been found when Gov. Sonny Perdue was proposing bloated budgets.

I don't want government spending money, but elections are an area where government has a responsibility to ensure integrity of the process. It means keeping non-citizens off the voter rolls, ensuring fair elections and guaranteeing a transparent and verifiable vote.