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Alabama Republicans Move to Block Prisoner Voting Registration

The AP reports:

Alabama Prisons Commissioner Richard Allen stopped a voter registration drive for inmates Thursday under pressure from the Alabama Republican Party.

In a letter to state Republican Party Chairman Mike Hubbard, Allen said individuals conducting the program "were not doing anything for the inmates that they could not do themselves by simply contacting the Secretary of State's Office for the voter registration postcard."

Allen's absurd rationale: [More...]

Allen said he decided to stop the drive because of a section in the state code that prohibits using state-owned property to promote or advance candidates for election.

While it is not clear that assisting voters to register would violate those provisions, I cannot expose departmental employees to that possibility," he wrote.

Loretta Nall has more.

The problem with this flimsy excuse is that no candidate was being promoted. All we were doing was registering those in jail who are eligible to vote UNDER STATE LAW. No one was supporting McCain or Obama. No names were mentioned during the registration. However, as I mentioned before most of those in jail or prison for drug charges are black despite the fact that blacks and whites use drugs at the same rate and the Republicans know this. Hell, they are largely responsible for this. How convenient the drug war is for marginalizing certain classes of people for political gain.

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  • Display: Sort:
    Indefensible. (none / 0) (#1)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 02:51:52 PM EST


    More voter caging. If ALA is prepared to (none / 0) (#2)
    by Christy1947 on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 03:06:24 PM EST
    allow inmates to vote, they have to provide some reasonable way for them to register, and then to vote. Like Vets in veterans' hospitals, on whom the Repubs tried the same stunt. I wonder if the Repubs tried to prevent soldiers on bases from registering to vote, on the same theory. Probably.

    The only proper test for who gets registered, and who gets nonpartisan help doing it, ought to be whoever the state says is in fact allowed to vote. If it's prisoners, as it appears to be here, then nonpartisan voter registration should be permitted.

    Marvelous reasoning that (none / 0) (#3)
    by Cream City on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 03:13:19 PM EST
    probably will fuel stopping all GOTV efforts on all state-owned property in my state, too -- such as the 22 state campuses.  Hope my GOP AG doesn't see this to add to his efforts (see TChris' neglected post a couple of days ago on the case in Wisconsin) to complicate the process of democracy.

    Linky goodness (none / 0) (#6)
    by scribe on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 03:21:20 PM EST
    like this, gets more attention to TChris' post.

    From the Michigan lawsuit referred to in my comment, I note this paragraph of their complaint might well have pertinence to the Wisconsin AG's dirt-dealing:

    29.  Federal law provides substantial protection to prevent voters from being removed from rolls of registered voters as an election is approaching. The National Voter Registration Act, 42 U.S.C. § 1973gg-6, prohibits States from engaging in any effort to systematically remove voters from the list of eligible voters unless that effort was i) was completed more than 90 days before the date of the federal election and ii) is uniform (i.e., applied to everyone in the jurisdiction), non-discriminatory, and in compliance with the Voting Rights Act of 1965. 42 U.S.C. § 1977gg-6. Through the mass, systematic "lose your home, lose your vote" challenge process, Defendant Republicans are trying to do what federal law expressly prohibits state election officials from doing (even if they were to do it in a neutral and non-discriminatory fashion, which this is not): purge the voter rolls of voters on election day itself, thereby infringing on their ability to cast a ballot for federal office.

    Since, it would seem, the Wisconsin AG waited until only about 60 days were left before the election to try to compel a purge of the voter rolls, it would similarly seem that he's running afoul of federal law.

    Parent

    From your comment to the judge's ear (none / 0) (#17)
    by Cream City on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 05:58:48 PM EST
    who will be hearing the case for the injunction.  Thanks for this, as I will be watching. . . .

    Parent
    Well, it is more evidence (none / 0) (#4)
    by scribe on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 03:15:14 PM EST
    for the Michigan suit (24 page .pdf) which Obama for America has brought (as a class action) to gut the Repugs' "lose your home, lose your vote" plan, in which they would challenge voting by people whose homes were in foreclosure.

    From what I've read, the Obama campaign is looking to nationalize the issue of Rethug voter suppression, so it might be an idea for them to expand their litigation into Alabama.  Assuming they can find a federal judge there not totally beholden to Rove, Bush and the Rethugs.


    this thread is about Alabama and inmates (none / 0) (#14)
    by Jeralyn on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 03:55:53 PM EST
    in prisons and attempts to suppress their votes. Please put MI comments about homeowners on those threads.

    Parent
    More voter caging. If ALA is prepared to (none / 0) (#5)
    by Christy1947 on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 03:20:10 PM EST
    allow inmates to vote, they have to provide some reasonable way for them to register, and then to vote. Like Vets in veterans' hospitals, on whom the Repubs tried the same stunt. I wonder if the Repubs tried to prevent soldiers on bases from registering to vote, on the same theory. Probably.

    The only proper test for who gets registered, and who gets nonpartisan help doing it, ought to be whoever the state says is in fact allowed to vote. If it's prisoners, as it appears to be here, then nonpartisan voter registration should be permitted.

    How many states permit (none / 0) (#7)
    by oculus on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 03:35:38 PM EST
    persons serving time on a felony conviction to vote?  I don't think California does, so I'm surprised Alabama does.  

    Here (none / 0) (#10)
    by sarcastic unnamed one on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 03:45:50 PM EST
    Thanks. Quick response. (none / 0) (#11)
    by oculus on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 03:49:51 PM EST
    Alabama is in the "most restricted" category.

    Parent
    Nice link sarc.... (none / 0) (#12)
    by kdog on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 03:50:49 PM EST
    Give it up for Maine and Vermont, the most enfranchising states in the union!

    Parent
    Thanks, suo (none / 0) (#13)
    by scribe on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 03:52:17 PM EST
    That's a very helpful chart.

    Parent
    This makes me more ashamed of my state. (none / 0) (#15)
    by jeffinalabama on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 04:18:05 PM EST
    Hubbard is a sleaze, at best. I have known of his wirks for years... the conservative wing of the GOP, which doesn't get more conservative than Alabama party apparatchiks.

    Same old GOP (none / 0) (#16)
    by Steve M on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 04:45:03 PM EST
    How nice it would be to have a real Civil Rights Division again.

    Yep. I'll vote for the candidate who vows (none / 0) (#19)
    by Cream City on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 06:01:01 PM EST
    to restore funding and positions to the EEOC, too.  It has been gutted as well as the Civil Rights division, leaving people like these Alabama prisoners able to look only to their states for relief.  That doesn't bode well for them.

    Parent
    What an outrage. (none / 0) (#18)
    by shoephone on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 06:00:34 PM EST
    I hope the Alabama LWV makes a major stink about this immediately. It would be nice if the national LWV president, Mary Wilson, took to the airwaves as well. Pretty sure we can't count on the U.S. attorney...

    Prisoner Voting (none / 0) (#20)
    by Bandido on Fri Sep 19, 2008 at 07:50:35 PM EST
    In the more civilized Northern states prisoners loose their right to vote.