Restrictions on absentee ballot help in Alabama are being challenged in a lawsuit

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — An Alabama law that criminalizes certain types of assistance with absentee ballot applications is being challenged in court by groups who say it “turns civic and neighborly voter engagement into a serious crime.”

The Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, the League of Women Voters, and other groups are plaintiffs in the lawsuit filed in federal court. They say the statute disenfranchises voters, including senior citizens and disabled voters, who may need assistance in the absentee voting process.

The new Alabama law, which restricts who can return or fill out an absentee ballot application, comes as Republicans in several states have looked to enact new restrictions on voting by mail after former President Donald Trump lost his bid for reelection in 2020.

The new Alabama law makes it a misdemeanor to return another person’s ballot application or distribute an absentee ballot application that is prefilled with information such as the voter’s name. It would become a felony — punishable by up to 20 years in prison — to pay someone to distribute, order, collect, deliver, complete or prefill someone else’s absentee ballot application.

“SB1 takes Alabama backwards as it violates the law, restricts our basic Constitutional Amendment rights, obliterates freedom of speech,” Benard Simelton, president of the Alabama State Conference of the NAACP, said in a statement. “It marginalizes voters’ access to the ballot box.”

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