{"id":57416,"date":"2023-04-17T23:05:04","date_gmt":"2023-04-18T06:05:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=57416"},"modified":"2023-04-17T23:05:04","modified_gmt":"2023-04-18T06:05:04","slug":"voting-rights-advocates-aim-to-stop-voter-suppression-bill-that-would-criminalize-assisting-voters-who-need-help-with-absentee-voting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/?p=57416","title":{"rendered":"Voting rights advocates aim to stop voter suppression bill that would criminalize assisting voters who need help with absentee voting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Voting rights advocates, led by the\u00a0Alabama Voting Rights Coalition<\/a>, are mobilizing in an effort to stop a bill that would create more obstacles for voters who need assistance with absentee voting ballot applications.<\/p>\n

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HB 209 by Rep. Jamie Kiel, is yet another example of how lawmakers are working to make voting access more difficult, but comes as no surprise since Alabama has a long, storied history of voter suppression and voter disenfranchisement.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe prevailing threat of American Democracy continues to come from the legislative dismantling of human rights,\u201d said Angela Curry, executive director of\u00a0United Women of Color<\/a>. \u201cUnited Women of Color is dedicated to standing in the gap for our community to resist authoritarianism and racist oppression. The unintended consequences and negative impact of HB 209 could set our state back to the constitutional convention of 1901, where John Knox called for the codification of white supremacy in order to deny blacks and poor whites from the power of the democratic process of fair and free elections. We will not be deterred.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Civic organizations and individuals could be charged with a felony for distributing the absentee ballot application \u2013 an application that is available on the Secretary of State\u2019s website and is public record.<\/p>\n

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This bill creates unnecessary obstacles for senior citizens and people with disabilities who need assistance getting their absentee ballot applications.<\/p>\n

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Organizers say HB 209 likely violates two federal laws including the Americans with Disability Act and Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act.<\/p>\n

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\u201cAlabamians have the right to receive help from whoever they want with their absentee ballot and denying them that right unfairly diminishes their voice in government,\u201d said Katie Glenn, senior policy associate for Alabama with the\u00a0SPLC Action Fund.<\/a>\u00a0\u201cIt\u2019s unfathomable that state legislators are criminalizing good Samaritans for helping their neighbors vote and leaving many Alabamians who need that help with no one to turn to.\u201d<\/p>\n

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If passed, the bill would limit organizations whose work aims to increase access to the ballot for all Alabamians.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThe Alabama Legislature, like the legislatures of other southern states, is attempting to pass Jim Crow legislation that directly targets Black and other marginalized voters. HB209, seeks to criminalize civic organizations, churches and individuals who are merely attempting to help their neighbors, who may be senior or disabled, exercise their right to vote. As drafted, if a member of the community simply offered to bring their senior or disabled neighbor a ballot application from the courthouse or printed it for them, this volunteer could be charged with a class D felony and face significant jail time,\u201d said Cliff Albright, co-founder of\u00a0Black Voters Matter<\/a>. \u201c We are deeply concerned about these Jim Crow laws because we know that many of our senior and<\/p>\n

disabled community members have to rely on civic organizations, churches, and volunteers to help them have access to the ballot in the absence of technology in their homes or available family members to offer assistance. HB209 seeks to further disenfranchise these groups without any meaningful evidence that neighbors helping neighbors produces fraud. We are outraged by the ongoing attempts by Republican lawmakers to restrict access to the ballot box for thousands of eligible voters. HB209, and bills like it, are dangerous and serve as a constant reminder of the blatant attacks on our democracy that we must continue to fight against.\u201d<\/p>\n

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The bill also makes it illegal to receive payment for assistance with absentee voting.<\/p>\n

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This could mean if you assist your elderly neighbor with their absentee ballot and they give you $5 for gas money to drop it off, they could be charged with a Class B Felony.<\/p>\n

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This could also affect organizations who pay people to help fill out ballots as part of an outreach campaign or GOTV organizations who provide gas cards to help low-income voters afford to get to the courthouse.<\/p>\n

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Organizers are also worried that this bill will cause confusion and even fear among state voters who already are vulnerable.<\/p>\n

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“House Bill 209 will incite fear and confusion for vulnerable and underserved voters who have in the past obtained information and assistance from trusted, non-profit, non-partisan organizations such as the League of Women Voters,\u201d said Kathy Jones, president of the\u00a0League of Women Voters Alabama<\/a>. \u201cThere is no actual problem with voter fraud in the current Alabama absentee ballots process. At its core, HB209 is a tool for voter intimidation and voter suppression, meant to make absentee voting inaccessible for a large number of people who are legally entitled to vote absentee.”<\/p>\n

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Organizers across Alabama are committed to organizing and mobilizing communities around efforts\u00a0 to protect democracy and to protect the voice of the people, especially Black and Brown communities, LGBTQ+ communities and people with disabilities.<\/p>\n

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\u201c\u200b\u200bVoter suppression has a long, ugly history in Alabama for Black voters. This is why it\u2019s important now more than ever to build power and educate our communities so that we can mobilize them to fight against these attacks on our democracy,\u201d said Cara McClure, executive director of\u00a0Faith & Works<\/a>. \u201cBuilding that power to combat attacks such as these is one of the things Faith & Works wants to accomplish with our (Re)Vote: The Black Community Church Voter Project.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Advocates will not stop fighting until all Alabamians have access to the ballot and be able to uphold their right to vote without unnecessary obstacles.<\/p>\n

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\u201cDemocracy is about every person having an equal voice in what life with governance should be,\u201d said Onoyemi Williams, deputy director of\u00a0Faith in Action Alabama<\/a>. \u201cThis bill at its very foundation seeks to not only undermine that foundational value of this country but goes even further by attempting to take a person’s freedom by criminalizing them if they should attempt to help their neighbor lift their voice if they are unable to physically stand at the voting box podium.\u00a0 If this bill passes it will be like placing democracy on hospice for Alabamians.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Dr. Adia Winfrey, founder of\u00a0Transform Alabama<\/a>\u00a0agreed.<\/p>\n

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\u201cOur democracy is compromised with each bad bill that is proposed,\u201d she said. \u201cHB 209 is a prime example of this.\u00a0 If this bill passes, it will create voting obstacles for seniors, those with compromised mobility, individuals with disabilities, and other underserved populations. Either our Representatives are on the side of democracy, or they are not. HB 209 is the line in the sand.\u201d<\/p>\n

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HB 209 will go to committee with a public hearing before the House Constitution, Campaigns, and Elections committee at 9 a.m. on Wednesday, April 19 in the Capitol Meeting Room.<\/p>\n

Organizers are encouraging community members to attend the public hearing to stand in solidarity against HB 209 that would have detrimental impacts on voters across the state.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Voting rights advocates, led by the\u00a0Alabama...<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-57416","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-u-s-a"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57416","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=57416"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57416\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":57417,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57416\/revisions\/57417"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=57416"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=57416"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lapost.us\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=57416"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}