A voting ballot. A federal judge limited enforcement of Alabama’s absentee ballot law. (Getty Images)
A federal judge Tuesday blocked a portion of Alabama’s law criminalizing some forms of ballot assistance, saying it burdened blind, disabled and illiterate voters in violation of the Voting Rights Act.
U.S. District Judge R. David Proctor wrote that the law violated Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act, added to the 1965 law in 1982 that allows blind, illiterate or disabled people to accept assistance “by a person of the voter’s choice.”
“The court easily concludes, after reviewing its language, that SB 1 unduly burdens the rights of Section 208 voters to make a choice about who may assist them in obtaining and returning an absentee ballot,” wrote the judge, appointed by former President George W. Bush.
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The law, sponsored by Sen. Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman and signed by Gov. Kay Ivey this spring, makes it a Class C felony (punishable up to 10 years in prison) for a person to knowingly receive payment for “distributing, ordering, requesting, collecting, completing, prefilling, obtaining or delivering” an absentee ballot application. A Class B felony (punishable up to 20 years in prison) would be if a person knowingly pays or provides a gift to a “third party to distribute, order, request, collect, prefill, complete, obtain or deliver.”
Proctor directed the attorney general to issue “corrective instructions” that the section of the law has been enjoined.
Messages seeking comment were left Tuesday afternoon with the Alabama attorney general’s office and attorneys for the plaintiffs.
This is a breaking news story and will be updated.
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