BIRMINGHAM, Alabama — The Alabama attorney general’s office on Wednesday described a new ban on providing assistance to voters in requesting a mail ballot as “common sense voting,” while advocates challenging the restrictions said they have shut down important community work.
The differing portrayals of the new law were aired during a federal hearing on Alabama’s request to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the law. U.S. District Judge R. David Proctor did not indicate when he would rule but said he understood the two sides wanted a decision before the general election in November.
The new law, originally known as Senate Bill 1, restricts who can complete and return a voter’s application to receive a mail ballot. It makes it illegal to ballot by mail application that is pre-filled with information such as the voter’s name, or to return another person’s mail-in ballot application. And it is a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison to give or receive a payment or gift “for distributing, ordering, requesting, collecting, completing, pre-filling, obtaining, or delivering a voter’s mail-in ballot application.”
Alabama is one of several states led by Republicans. determine restrictions about voter assistance. Republicans in the state said the measure is needed to combat “ballot harvesting,” a pejorative term for collecting multiple mail ballots. The Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, the League of Women Voters and other groups filed a lawsuit challenging the new law, which they say “makes civic and community-based voter engagement a serious crime.”
During the hearing, Alabama Attorney General Edmund LaCour described the law as a measure to protect the integrity of the vote, preventing paid workers from collecting votes through mail-in ballots.
“SB1 helps combat fraud and confusion by ensuring that the mail-in ballot request process remains in the hands of voters,” LaCour told Proctor, arguing that there are exceptions for disabled voters who need assistance.
Organizations challenging the Alabama law said it infringes on free speech rights and is unconstitutionally vague about what kind of conduct would be illegal. They also argued that the law violates the federal Voting Rights Act.
“SB1 does not meet the constitutional requirements,” Valencia Richardson, an attorney at the Campaign Legal Center, told Proctor.
The new law has forced voter information groups to shut down some operations, Richardson said, “because they’re afraid of going to jail.”
Kathy Jones of the League of Women Voters of Alabama said the group has “basically had to stop” helping people with mail-in ballot requests because of the uncertainty and fear.
“We don’t want to put our members at risk,” Jones told The Associated Press on Tuesday.
Proctor asked several hypothetical questions during the hearing, including whether a compensated person at an information booth or table would be in violation of the law if he had a stack of blank ballots to hand out to interested voters. The state responded that he would be.
William Van Der Pol, an attorney with the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program, told Proctor that it is wrong for the state to suggest that community organizations are engaged in vote buying or improperly influencing voters.
“That’s the exact opposite of their mission,” he said.