Alabama has placed new limits on assistance with absentee ballot requests, making it illegal to return someone else’s ballot application and a felony to pay someone to distribute or collect an application.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey announced Wednesday that she had signed the bill into law, a day after it received final approval in the Alabama General Assembly.
“Here in Alabama, we are committed to ensuring our elections are free and fair,” Ivey said in a statement Wednesday. “Nothing strange will happen in Alabama’s elections on my watch.”
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Republicans in the Alabama General Assembly have made the bill a major priority this year, aiming to pass it before the November election. Republicans argued they needed to combat voter fraud through “ballot harvesting,” which involves collecting multiple absentee ballots. Democrats argued there was no evidence of ballot harvesting and called it an attempt to suppress absentee voting.
Alabama Governor Kay Ivey speaks to supporters after her re-election victory in Montgomery, Alabama on November 8, 2022. (AP Photo/Vasya Hunt)
“This is just another round of voter suppression, a way to suppress the ability and right of certain people to access the free flow of votes,” Senate Minority Leader Bobby Singleton said during Tuesday afternoon’s debate. “It’s just a matter of time,” he said.
The absentee voting bill would make it a misdemeanor to distribute pre-filled absentee ballots to voters. The bill also provides that no one other than the voter who requested an absentee ballot may return the application to the county’s absentee election administrator. You can bring your absentee ballot application in person or return it by mail or carrier.
It would be a felony to give or receive a payment or gift “for the purpose of distributing, ordering, requesting, collecting, completing, pre-filling, obtaining, or delivering a voter’s absentee ballot application.”
“Free and fair elections are the cornerstone of our constitutional republic,” Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen said in a statement. “The passage of SB1 shows vote harvesters that Alabama’s votes are not for sale.” Stated.
The new law lists an exemption under which voters who require assistance because they are blind, disabled, or illiterate will be given assistance by an individual of their choice.
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In June, a federal judge blocked a Mississippi law from taking effect that established a shortlist of people who could “collect and transmit” absentee ballots. The judge said the Mississippi law violates the Voting Rights Act. The law is a federal law that says voters who are blind, disabled, or illiterate can receive assistance “from a person of the voter’s choice.”
