Alabama puts new restrictions on absentee ballot requests into play
MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama has placed new restrictions on assistance with absentee ballot requests, making it illegal to return another person’s ballot application and making it a felony to pay someone to handle applications.
Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey on Wednesday announced she had signed the bill into law a day after it was given final approval in the Alabama Legislature.
“Here in Alabama, we are committed to ensuring our elections are free and fair,” Ivey said in a statement. “Under my watch, there will be no funny business in Alabama elections.”
Republicans in the Alabama Legislature named the bill as a priority for the year and aimed to get it in place before the November election. Republicans said it is needed to combat voter fraud through “ballot harvesting,” a term for the collection of multiple absentee ballots. Opponents argued there is no proof ballot harvesting exists and called it an attempt to suppress voting by absentee ballot.
“SB1 (is) just another form of voter suppression that (does) nothing to protect the ‘integrity’ of ... elections but ... a great deal to make it harder for voters with disabilities to cast their ballot,” the League of Women Voters of Alabama said Wednesday. The group said “voter assistance is not a crime and should not be treated as such.”
The new law makes it a misdemeanor to distribute an absentee ballot application prefilled with information such as the voter’s name. It also says that no one other than the voter applying for an absentee ballot can return the application to their county’s absentee election manager.
It also makes it a felony 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.”