A voting ballot. A federal appeals court Friday refused to block a lower court ruling limiting the scope of an Alabama law criminalizing some forms of absentee ballot assistance. (Getty Images)
A three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals Friday declined to stay a lower court ruling limiting Alabama’s new absentee ballot assistance law.
The panel – U.S. circuit judges Adalberto Jordan and Jill Pryor, both appointed by President Barack Obama, a Democrat; and Andrew Brasher, appointed by President Donald Trump, a Republican – wrote that the order was “summary in nature” because the state had requested a decision by Friday.
“We conclude that the appellant has not made a strong showing that he is likely to succeed on the merits, the appellant (and thereby the state) will not be irreparably harmed if a stay is denied, the issuance of a stay would injure the plaintiffs (and other Section 208 voters), and the public interest does not weigh in favor of a stay,” they wrote.
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Gov. Kay Ivey last spring signed SB 1, sponsored by Sen. Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman. The law makes it a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, if a person knowingly receives payment for “distributing, ordering, requesting, collecting, completing, prefilling, obtaining or delivering” an absentee ballot application. The law makes it a Class B felony,punishable by up to 20 years in prison, for a person to knowingly pay or provide a gift to a “third party to distribute, order, request, collect, prefill, complete, obtain or deliver.”
U.S. District Judge R. David Proctor on Sept. 24 blocked the parts of the law as applied to blind, disabled and illiterate voters. Proctor cited Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act, which allows those voters choose people to help them fill out ballots. Proctor said the law would likely burden that right.
A message was left with the Attorney General’s office Friday evening. The attorney general’s office argued that it had not been demonstrated that the rights had been burdened to the point of needing an injunction.
“The court’s decision recognizes that many vulnerable voters would be unable to vote if Alabama were allowed to enforce the blocked law (Senate Bill 1 or SB 1), which imposes significant criminal sanctions on civic groups, like Plaintiffs, who Section 208 voters look to for help,” wrote the Legal Defense Fund, affiliated with the NAACP, one of the groups representing the plaintiffs, in a Friday news release. “Because of this decision, disabled and low-literacy voters are free to receive help from anyone of their choice throughout the voting process.”
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