Appeals court maintains block on Alabama absentee ballot restrictions

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Part of a new Alabama law limiting absentee ballot assistance will remain blocked, a federal appeals court ruled Friday, siding with voting rights groups that argued it discriminated against voters who are blind, disabled or cannot read.

A three-judge panel of the 11th Circuit Court unanimously affirmed: September lower court ruling that blocked some of it the law. The measure made it illegal to distribute an absentee ballot pre-filled with information such as the voter’s name, or to return someone else’s ballot. The new law also made it a crime to give or receive a payment or gift “for distributing, ordering, requesting, collecting, completing, pre-filling, obtaining or delivering an absentee ballot application to a voter.”

In a two-page decision, the appeals court judges ruled that revoking the lower court’s order would “harm” voting access for disabled voters and be contrary to the public interest.

The American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama, the Legal Defense Fund, the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program and the Campaign Legal Center filed a lawsuit on behalf of voter groups to challenge the law.

In the original lawsuit, voter groups said their paid staff or volunteers, who receive gas money or food, could be prosecuted for helping disabled voters apply.

“The court’s decision recognizes that many vulnerable voters would be unable to vote if Alabama were allowed to enforce the blocked law,” the plaintiffs said in a joint statement Friday.

In September, in an effort to uphold the entire lawAlabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office argued that anyone can help a disabled voter, but “but not in exchange for cash or gifts.”

“Alabama’s elections will be less secure and the voting rights of the state’s most vulnerable voters less protected if SB1’s order remains in effect,” Marshall’s office wrote, referring to the new law.

Alabama is one of many Republican-led states imposing new limits on voter support.

Attorneys general from Mississippi, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana and Texas filed an amicus curiae brief Friday in favor of the law and an appeal filed by Marshall.

The letter argued that this served the public interest by preventing third parties from completing and submitting large quantities of absentee ballots on behalf of voters.

The Alabama attorney general’s office did not immediately comment on the decision.