Disability rights groups have filed a lawsuit challenging the state’s new voting requirements, arguing they violate federal laws regarding people with disabilities.
Disability Rights Louisiana in New Orleans is targeting laws passed with little notice this legislative session and taking effect Aug. 1. Provisions in Statutes 380 and 317 make it a crime for multiple non-relatives to help obtain and mail an absentee ballot.
The lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Louisiana in Baton Rouge, also denounces Measures 712 and 302, which would make it a crime for more than one person to be listed as a witness on an absentee ballot. These laws would take effect on July 1, 2025.
Andrew Beiser, one of the group’s lawyers, said Louisiana’s rules create obstacles for people who have trouble filling out and mailing their own ballots before the election and also violate the federal Voting Rights Act, which allows people with disabilities to get help voting from a person of their choice.
“These laws are a little different than what I’m used to,” Bizer said. “This is a positive step toward suppression.”
The groups are asking the court to block the law from taking effect. Lawyers for Secretary of State Nancy Landry and Attorney General Liz Murray, who are named in the lawsuit, had not filed a response as of Tuesday.
But Landry pitched the proposal as part of his “election integrity” legislative agenda for 2024, which he announced in March. Rep. Josh Carlson (R-Lafayette), Sen. Caleb Kleinpeter (R-Port Allen) and Rep. Polly Thomas (R-Metairie) worked with Landry to sponsor the four plans in question.
“Louisiana has some of the best election administration in the nation, but there is always room for improvement,” Landry said in a statement.
The Secretary of State’s office has cited people with disabilities as some of the people who would benefit most from absentee voting, because they are allowed to vote by mail in all elections. Federal law already prohibits people from coercing others to vote or interfering with their ability to vote, but Kleinpeter argued in an interview with WBRZ-TV that the new state rules would protect “vulnerable voters,” such as those with disabilities, from being unfairly taken advantage of or abused by poll workers.
But Beiser said the rule also means that a caregiver who looks after multiple nursing home residents can only help one of them vote. Handing over a ballot for someone who isn’t a relative is already a violation of state law. Now the law also covers mail-in voting.
With the fall election approaching, the case has taken on added urgency, Biser said.