Alabama, civic groups spar over law restricting assistance with absentee ballot applications

BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The Alabama attorney general’s office on Wednesday described a new ban on providing voters with absentee ballot application assistance as “commonsense ballot integrity,” while lawyers challenging the restrictions said they have halted important civic work in the community.

The diverging depictions of the new law were aired during a federal hearing on Alabama’s request to dismiss a lawsuit challenging the statute. U.S. District Judge R. David Proctor did not indicate when he would rule, but said he understood the two sides want a decision before the November general election.

The new law, originally known as Senate Bill 1, puts restrictions on who can fill out and return a voter’s application form to receive an absentee ballot. It makes it illegal to distribute an absentee ballot application that is prefilled with information such as the voter’s name, or to return another person’s absentee ballot application. And it is a felony punishable by up to 20 years in prison to give, or receive, a payment or a gift “for distributing, ordering, requesting, collecting, completing, prefilling, obtaining, or delivering a voter’s absentee ballot application.”

Alabama is one of several Republican-led states to enact limitations on voter assistance. State Republicans said the measure is needed to combat “ballot harvesting,” a pejorative term for the collection of multiple absentee ballots. The Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, the League of Women Voters and other groups filed a lawsuit challenging the new statute, which they say “turns civic and neighborly voter engagement into a serious crime.”

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