View a PDF of our statement here.
MONTGOMERY, Alabama — Today, a coalition of civil rights, voting rights, and disability rights organizations filed a motion for a preliminary injunction in Alabama NAACP et al. v. Marshall et al. In the motion, the plaintiffs ask the Court to suspend Alabama’s criminalization of assisting with absentee ballot applications, a crime that currently can lead to up to 20 years in prison.
If timely granted, the requested injunction would prevent the state from implementing the recently enacted Senate Bill 1 (SB 1) before the October 29, 2024 deadline for applying for an absentee ballot by mail for the November 2024 general election. The preliminary injunction ensures that SB 1 will not be enforced while the plaintiffs seek a permanent injunction at the conclusion of the litigation.
With SB 1, nonpartisan civil rights, voting rights, and disability rights organizations and their volunteers fear criminal penalties for engaging in routine voting assistance and other constitutionally protected activities. The law’s vague, overbroad, and undefined provisions chill individuals’ constitutional right to provide critical assistance with the absentee ballot application process. In particular, elderly voters, incarcerated voters, voters with disabilities, and low-literacy voters (including Black and Latino voters who endure persistent discrimination in education and other areas) need assistance to gain the right to vote.
The lawsuit challenging SB 1 was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Alabama by the Alabama State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) (Alabama NAACP), Greater Birmingham Ministries (GBM), the League of Women Voters of Alabama (LWVAL), and the Alabama Disability Advocacy Program (ADAP). The plaintiffs are represented by the Campaign Legal Center (CLC), Legal Defense Fund (LDF), Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), the Alabama Disability Advocacy Program (ADAP), and the American Civil Liberties Union of Alabama (ACLU-AL).
“SB1 is a clear attack on our fundamental rights and our democratic process,” said Alabama NAACP President Benard Simelton. “Criminalizing individuals for attempting to fulfill their civic duty destroys the essence of freedom and rights and deprives citizens of their fundamental rights. We are asking the Court to hear our voices and overturn SB1.”
“Voting barrier laws undermine fundamental principles of our democracy and must be blocked,” said Cathy Jones, president of the League of Women Voters of Alabama. “SB 1 unfairly targets the individuals and organizations that voters with disabilities rely on to get their ballot. The League of Women Voters of Alabama asks the court to block this law so we can continue our work to make Alabamians’ voices heard this fall.”
“Greater Birmingham Ministries is a nonpartisan, pro-democracy faith-based organization that opposes SB 1 because it creates barriers for a more informed, supported and engaged demographic of voters who must vote absentee. This includes many with disabilities, shift workers who don’t know their shifts well in advance, and even legally incarcerated and convicted criminals who have been convicted of crimes but still have the right to vote and feel like they have their full citizenship back,” said Scott Douglas, executive director of Greater Birmingham Ministries. “GBM supports seniors who use walkers, the blind, amputees, people with other health issues, and all those who would truly suffer under SB 1 if they were to lose their ability to fully participate in civil society.”
“SB 1 is an ill-conceived ‘solution’ desperately searching for a problem that doesn’t exist,” said ADAP Senior Trial Attorney William Van Der Pol. “All this bill accomplishes is creating more unnecessary barriers for voters who are disabled, elderly, infirm, or whose only way to express their opinion is by absentee ballot.”
“SB 1’s vague and undefined language has community groups and volunteers worried that their everyday voter participation activities could lead to felony penalties,” said Alison Molman, legal director for the ACLU of Alabama. “Through this preliminary injunction, we are asking the Court not to allow Alabama to impose these unnecessary, overbroad and unclear restrictions until this case is fully resolved.”
“SB 1 prevents neighbors and caretakers from exercising one another’s right to vote,” said Jess Unger, senior staff attorney for voting rights at the Southern Poverty Law Center. “Not only does this measure undermine the very essence of community support and civic culture, it also thwarts fundamental democratic processes.”
“SB 1 is an attack on Alabama voters and community organizations,” said Valencia Richardson, voting rights legal counsel at the Campaign Legal Center. “We should be celebrating, not punishing, civic-minded people who help make their voices heard. Instead, with a crucial election looming, Alabamians are facing the possibility of serious criminal penalties for ordinary civic activities. That’s why it’s so important that the Court blocks this vague anti-voter law while litigation is ongoing.”
“SB 1 has no place in our democracy,” said Anuja Thatte, assistant counsel at the Legal Defense Fund. “Criminalizing people who want our election system to be accessible to citizens is antithetical to a truly inclusive democracy that values the rights and contributions of its citizens. Today’s motion seeks to protect these rights as our litigation proceeds.”
A copy of the preliminary injunction petition can be found here.
Read about the lawsuit challenging SB 1 here.