NATIONAL NEWS

Appeals court maintains block on Alabama absentee ballot restrictions

Oct 11, 2024, 5:17 PM

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — A portion of a new Alabama law limiting help with absentee ballot applications will remain blocked, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday, siding with voting rights groups who argued that it discriminated against voters who are blind, disabled or cannot read.

A three-judge panel on the 11th Circuit Court unanimously affirmed a lower court decision from September that blocked a portion of the law. The measure made it illegal to distribute an absentee ballot application that is prefilled with information such as the voter’s name, or to return another person’s absentee ballot application. The new law also made 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.”

In a two-page decision, the appeals court judges ruled that removing the lower court’s injunction would “injure” voting access for disabled voters and goes against the public interest.

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

In the original lawsuit, voter outreach groups said their paid staff members or volunteers, who are given gas money or food, could face prosecution for helping disabled voters with an application.

“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 on Friday.

In September, in an effort to keep the entire law in place, Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall’s office argued anyone could help a disabled voter, but “just 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 injunction remains in place,” Marshall’s office wrote, referring to the new law.

Alabama is one of several Republican-led states imposing new limits on voter assistance.

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

The brief argued that it advanced public interest by preventing third-parties from completing and submitting large amounts of absentee ballots on behalf of voters.

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

National News

A pumpjack operates in the foreground as wind turbines at the Buckeye Wind Energy wind farm rise in...

Associated Press

Trump 2.0 will alter global climate fighting efforts. Will others step up?

WASHINGTON (AP) — Global efforts to fight climate change stumbled but survived the last time Donald Trump was elected president and withdrew the United States from an international climate agreement. Other countries, states, cities and businesses picked up some of the slack. But numerous experts worry that a second Trump term will be more damaging, […]

52 minutes ago

FILE - A voter deposits his voting machine activation card into a box after casting his ballot at a...

Associated Press

AP VoteCast: How Donald Trump built a winning 2024 coalition

WASHINGTON (AP) — Big shifts within small groups and small shifts within big groups helped propel Donald Trump’s return to the White House. The Republican candidate won by holding onto his traditional coalition — white voters, voters without a college degree and older voters — while making crucial gains among younger voters and Black and […]

1 hour ago

Associated Press

Southern California wildfire destroys 132 structures as officials look for fierce winds to subside

CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) — Southern California firefighters working to contain a wildfire that has destroyed 132 structures in two days could be assisted by a forecast of fierce wind gusts easing early Friday, officials said. The Mountain Fire started Wednesday morning in Ventura County and had grown to 32 square miles (about 83 square kilometers) […]

4 hours ago

FILE - President Joe Biden talks with the U.S. Border Patrol and local officials, as he looks over ...

Associated Press

Judge strikes down Biden administration program shielding immigrant spouses from deportation

A federal judge on Thursday struck down a Biden administration policy that aimed to ease a path to citizenship for some undocumented immigrants who are married to U.S. citizens. The program, lauded as one of the biggest presidential actions to help immigrant families in years, allowed undocumented spouses and stepchildren of U.S. citizens to apply […]

4 hours ago

Associated Press

Llamas on the loose on Utah train tracks after escaping owner

PROVO, Utah (AP) — A small herd of domestic llamas was spotted taking an evening stroll on the train tracks in Provo, Utah, on Thursday after the woolen creatures escaped from their owner, according to the Utah Transit Authority. Several emergency responders were dispatched to round up the five llamas after transit officials received reports […]

7 hours ago

FILE - A hearse and debris can be seen at the rear of the Return to Nature Funeral Home, Oct. 5, 20...

Associated Press

The Colorado funeral home owners accused of letting 190 bodies decompose are set to plead guilty

DENVER (AP) — The husband and wife owners of a funeral home accused of piling 190 bodies inside a room-temperature building in Colorado while giving grieving families fake ashes were expected to plead guilty Friday, charged with hundreds of counts of corpse abuse. The discovery last year shattered families’ grieving processes. The milestones of mourning […]

8 hours ago

Appeals court maintains block on Alabama absentee ballot restrictions