US EditionAlabama asks court to lift block on limits to absentee ballot applications
Alabama appeals to reinstate a law banning gifts for absentee ballot help, aiming to prevent exploitation while ensuring assistance for voters with disabilities, affecting 208 voters under the Voting Rights Act.
- On Tuesday, Alabama’s attorney general petitioned the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals to overturn a preliminary injunction that had blocked the state’s felony ban on gifts and payments related to absentee ballot assistance.
- The injunction issued last year focuses on the impact of the ban on voters who are blind, disabled, or unable to read, protecting their right to receive assistance as provided under federal law.
- The 2024 law criminalizes gifts or payments to third parties for handling absentee ballot applications, restricts who may assist voters, and makes it illegal to distribute prefilled absentee ballot applications or return others' applications.
- Attorney Anuja D. Thatte argued the law improperly narrows permissible assistors and threatens prosecution of home health aides and disability program employees, while Deputy Solicitor Alexander B. Bowdre stated voters can still choose their own helpers.
- The appeals court panel has not announced a ruling date, leaving most of the law in effect and Alabama among several Republican-led states imposing voter assistance limits.
14 Articles
14 Articles
How strict should the absentee ballot process be in Alabama?
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (WHNT) — An appeals court in Alabama heard arguments this week in a lawsuit about ballot harvesting. The state is appealing one judge's decision that allows people to give and receive gifts when helping blind, disabled or illiterate voters fill out absentee ballots. It's all a part of a law regulating the absentee ballot process, which the Attorney General's office said is necessary to protect vulnerable voters. But others argue…
Court to decide if Alabama can ban paid help for absentee ballot voters with disabilities
A judge was wrong to block part of an Alabama state law that makes it a felony to provide gifts or payments for helping with an absentee ballot application, state attorneys told an appeals court panel Tuesday.
Federal court hears arguments in Alabama appeal of absentee ballot ruling
Absentee ballots are prepared to be mailed at the Wake County Board of Elections on Sept. 17, 2024 in Raleigh, North Carolina. A federal court Tuesday heard arguments in Alabama's appeal of a lower court ruing that struck down a portion of a law criminalizing some forms of absentee ballot assistance. (Allison Joyce/Getty Images))A federal court heard arguments Tuesday in Alabama’s appeal of a 2024 ruling that blocked a portion of a state law cri…
Associated Press News
Alabama asks court to lift block on limits to absentee ballot applications
Alabama is asking a federal appeals court to lift an injunction that blocked part of a law that limits assistance with absentee ballot applications.
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