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Who is Marc E Elias? Attorney dubbed 'racist' over 'DL No' controversy for Georgia's new voting laws

'Apparently Marc Elias thinks Black people are too stupid to know that "DL NO." is where they can find their driver's license number,' tweeted a user

After the signing of Georgia's new voting laws by Governor Brian Kemp, many have termed the new laws as 'racist' citing that these would restrict a minority voter of color. Now, Marc E Elias, an attorney specializing in election law, has clarified the identification process for voting absentee via mail. The rule requires a voter to enter their registered Driving License No. in the database. 

"The new Georgia law will require voters to submit ID to vote by mail. If they use their driver's license, they need to provide the #.
One of the two numbers below is correct. If they put the other, it will be rejected. Are you sure you would pick the right one?" tweeted Elias. His tweet was dubbed as 'racist' by many users who felt that the overtly simplified process indicated a subtle jibe at Black voters, assuming that they would not be able to differentiate between DL No and DD. 

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Who is Marc E Elias?

Fifty-two-year-old Marc E Elias is a political attorney specializing in election law, voting rights, and redistricting, who is the head of Political Law and partner at the Seattle-based law firm Perkins Coie. In the past, Elias had served as general counsel for the 2016 presidential campaign of Hillary Clinton as well as the 2004 presidential campaign of John Kerry. In 2019, he became the general counsel for Kamala Harris' 2020 presidential campaign.

He is the founder of Democracy Docket, a web platform that focuses on voting rights and election litigation in the US. During the 2020 presidential elections, Elias was in charge of overseeing the state-by-state response to Trump campaign lawsuits, contesting the election results. 

Marc E Elias was born on February 1, 1969, in a New York City-based Jewish family. He was raised in Suffern, New York, and later pursued a Bachelor of Arts degree in Political Science from Hamilton College. He went on to earn a Master's degree in the subject from Duke University. In 1993, Elias earned a J.D. degree from Duke University School of Law. 

Elias represents multiple Democratic Congress members and has even represented the leadership of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives. He also represents several committees like the Democratic National Committee, Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and Democratic Governors Association. Elias also has a number of significant other political cases to his name. 

'I never mentioned race'

After Elias tweeted about the DL No rule on April 1, several prominent Twitter users criticized his 'racist' outlook. 

"Apparently Marc Elias thinks Black people are too stupid to know that "DL NO." is where they can find their driver's license number," tweeted journalist Curtis Houck. "This dummy can’t figure out that “DL. NO.” means driver’s license #," wrote John Cardillo while Greg Price tweeted, "I would probably pick the one at the top that says "DL No" (aka drivers license number) because I'm not a moron."

"So just to clarify, this racist is insinuating that black people aren’t smart enough to know DL No. stands for Driver’s License Number," one user remarked. 

Following the backlash, Marc Elias tweeted back clarifying his stance. He wrote, "I never mentioned race and the photo is from the Georgia DMV's website. But, of course, you knew that when you wrote what you did below."