Civil rights groups on Saturday urged Alabama State University students to vote in the November election. (Mario Tama/Getty Images)
Civil rights groups urged students at Alabama State University on Saturday to vote in the upcoming election, saying it could have a dramatic impact on different aspects of their lives, from reproductive rights to criminal justice.
“It costs your voice,” said Scotteria Scott, a student at Tuskegee University who was on the panel of speakers of different ages. “It costs you your life honestly. It is important to vote because that is your voice, that is your right. We have had so many historic figures, Martin Luther King, Harriet Tubman, they all fought for our right to vote. That is basically our voice getting heard.”
The Southern Poverty Law Center; the League of Women Voters of Alabama and Alabama Values hosted the event aiming to increase voter participation ahead of the November general election, which the groups have said is at a pivotal point in the state’s history.
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Alabama’s deadline to register to vote in the November election is Oct. 21.
Speakers noted that there had been some wins for voting access and representation in recent years. One was Alabama’s 2nd Congressional District, redrawn last year to include a Black Voting Age Population (BVAP) of almost 49%.
Following a two-year legal battle that saw two appeals to the U.S. Supreme Court, a three-judge federal panel approved new district lines aimed at allowing Black residents an opportunity for more representation.
But Katie Glenn, a senior policy associate for SPLC, said those decisions left the Republican-controlled Legislature “mad.”
“They were pissed off honestly,” she said. “It is not often the supermajority loses, and because of that, they decided to come at us with everything they had the first five weeks of the session.”
The Legislature last spring approved SB 1, sponsored by Sen. Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, that criminalizes some absentee ballot assistance.
The legislation makes it a Class C felony, punishable by up to 10 years in prison, for knowingly distributing a prefilled ballot with a person’s name or other information already filled in.
It also makes it a Class B felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison, to pay someone for receiving assistance.
Glenn said the law gives prosecutors and the attorney general’s office latitude for deciding who the law will criminalize.
“We know who it will criminalize, it is Black folks, it is Brown folks, it is low-income people,” Glenn said.
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 to choose people to help them fill out ballots. Proctor said the law would likely burden that right. A three-judge panel of the U.S. 11th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld Proctor’s decision on Friday.
Speakers also cited HB 100, sponsored by Rep. Adline Clarke, D-Mobile, that upgraded criminal penalties for people who commit violence against election workers. But lawmakers amended the language that expanded the list of crimes that would make it illegal for thousands more people to vote.
Alabama makes people who have committed such crimes navigate a process to have their rights restored, which could include obtaining a pardon or applying to have their voting rights restored with the Alabama Bureau of Pardons and Paroles, depending on the nature of the crime.
HB 100 added a litany of crimes to the list considered crimes of moral turpitude, such as “compelling street gang membership,” stalking and domestic violence and elder abuse. The bill also added to list the “attempted” or “conspiracy” versions of the crimes already on the list. In total, the crimes on the list increased from 40 to 120, according to the lawsuit that civil rights groups filed challenging the law.
The lawsuit was later dismissed after the civil rights groups and the Attorney General’s Office agreed that the provisions in the law would not be enforced for next month’s election.
JaiGregory Clarke, a voting rights advocate for Faith in Action Alabama, a nonprofit civil rights organization, lost his right to vote in 2012 after committing a crime on the list considered crimes of moral turpitude.
He was incarcerated, released, and worked to restore his right to vote.
“Because of the passage of HB 100, which was written ambiguously, can be applied retroactively, because of the way it was written, because of the passage of that law, now I can get the chance of losing my right to vote again after not even committing another crime,” he said to the attendees while on the panel.
Panelists stressed that the Legislature’s actions are the result of elections.
“Politics determines who gets what, when, where, and how much,” said Rev. Viola Bradford, voting rights advocate and former chaplain at Tutwiler.
One of the attendees was Breeanna Patzke, a student from the University of Alabama.
“I think it is really interesting to be in a state where there is such a legacy and a history of voter disenfranchisement, and to just learn about that and what active steps we can do to try to change that narrative,” she said.
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