Department of Justice files statement of interest in absentee ballot application case

Fearing that Democrats hold a crucial edge in ballots cast before Election Day, national Republicans are working to convince their voters to take advantage of mail and early voting this year. (Stephen Maturen/Getty Images)

The United States submitted a statement of interest to the case over the state’s absentee voting law expressing doubt of the legitimacy of the state’s arguments regarding absentee ballots.

In the 12-page filing, attorneys for the Department of Justice wrote that the case presented “important” questions over Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act and that Congress gave the Attorney General authority to enforce the section.

“Accordingly, the United States has a substantial interest in ensuring the proper interpretation of Section 208,” they wrote. “The United States takes no position on any factual disputes or any other legal questions in this case.”

A message was sent to a spokesperson for the Attorney General’s office Tuesday. A spokesperson for the Department of Justice directed comment to the brief.

SB 1, sponsored by Sen. Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, makes it so that a person receiving a gift or payment for “distributing, ordering, requesting, collecting, completing, prefilling, obtaining or delivering” an application a Class C felony, punishable by up 10 years in prison, and if a person knowingly pays or provides a gift to a “third party to distribute, order, request, collect, prefill, complete, obtain or deliver” a Class B felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison. 

Civil rights groups, including the ACLU of Alabama and the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, filed a lawsuit to block the bill in April.

Section 208 reads that “Any voter who requires assistance to vote by reason of blindness, disability, or inability to read or write may be given assistance by a person of the voter’s choice, other than the voter’s employer or agent of that employer or officer or agent of the voter’s union,” according to the U.S. House of Representatives website. 

In the filing, the attorneys wrote that the state is imposing restrictions on the allowances of voters under Section 208 and that the assistor must be a person of the voter’s choice.

“Nothing in Section 208’s plain language, including the article used to modify the word ‘person,’ permits states to impose exceptions to Section 208 that Congress neither contemplated nor approved, and states may not substitute their judgment for Congress’s,” they wrote. “Nor may they limit or override a voter’s choice of assistor so long as the chosen assistor is not an employer or union representative or an agent thereof.”

The attorneys wrote that voters choosing their helpers was the means to prevent outside influence into their voting.

“Alabama may not substitute its judgment for that of Congress or rewrite Section 208,” they wrote.

The attorneys wrote that congressional intent is the key to deciding whether federal law trumps state law, and that Section 208 was designed to provide access to voters.

“Taken as a whole, and given its purpose and intended effects, Section 208 preempts SB1 to the extent that the state law prevents voters with disabilities or inability to read or write from receiving assistance from an individual of their choice when completing, submitting, or mailing their absentee ballot application,” they wrote.

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