A group of Alabama civil rights and voting rights organizations filed a federal lawsuit against the state on Thursday to block enforcement of a new law that criminalizes some kinds of voter assistance with absentee ballots.
Last month, Kay Ivey, the Alabama governor, signed into law Senate Bill 1, which she said targets “ballot harvesting”. The law makes it a crime to request or collect an absentee ballot for someone other than close family and to fill out or mail an application or ballot for someone else. It specifically targets those who pay for assistance in the absentee ballot process with a potential felony punishable by up to 20 years.
“Among its defects, SB 1 makes it a crime to provide a postage stamp to a neighbor distributing absentee ballot applications, or for a grandmother to show her appreciation for her grandchild’s assistance in completing or delivering her absentee ballot application by giving them gas money or a token gift like a pie,” the plaintiff’s filing states.
The plaintiffs, which include the ACLU, Southern Poverty Law Center and other Alabama-based groups, noted that laws criminalizing assistance with voter registration or voting were a common tactic of white supremacist governments in Alabama before passage of the Voting Rights Act and have been previously blocked by federal courts as effectively a literacy test to vote.
Under the VRA, Alabama and other states were obligated to submit changes to voting legislation to the civil rights division of the justice department for review. “In 1970, the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) determined that a state law that barred voters from receiving assistance with completing their absentee voter registration forms violated the VRA’s ban on literacy tests,” the lawsuit says. “In 1972, the DOJ objected to a state law that permitted people only to assist one voter per election.”
Alabama has prosecuted Black voting rights workers for assisting others in the past – convictions that were overturned on appeals, the suit notes.
“SB 1 is an egregious attack on Alabama’s voters and those working tirelessly to help folks access our democracy,” said Danielle Lang, senior director of voting rights at Campaign Legal Center, which is representing plaintiffs in the lawsuit. “This law takes us backwards and attacks a fundamental aspect of our sacred freedom of speech – violating the constitution and hurting Alabamians who rely on non-partisan, good-government groups to help make their voices heard at the ballot box. We look forward to fighting alongside our partners against this extreme anti-voter law.”
