Skip to content
Search

Latest Stories

Top Stories

Alabama latest target of lawsuit seeking to ease election rules

Alabama voting

Alabama and its governor, Kay Ivey, are the latest target of a lawsuit seeking to ease the rules governing absentee ballots because of the coronavirus pandemic.

Seth Herald/Getty Images

The League of Women Voters has sued Alabama to ease the rules governing absentee ballots during the coronavirus pandemic.

The lawsuit, filed in state court in Montgomery on Thursday, claims Secretary of State John Merrill did not go far enough in March, when he waived strict excuse requirements for voting absentee — but only for primary runoffs that were then postponed to July 14.

The suit joins dozens filed in state and federal courts, in almost a score of states across the country, by voting and civil rights groups that want more people to be able to vote by mail so they don't have to risk their health by voting in person.


The suit seeks to make the state extend to the November election its temporary willingness to allow fear of exposure to the virus as a valid health rationale for voting remotely.

It also says the state should waive for the year its requirement that absentee ballot envelopes be notarized or signed by two witnesses — and contain a photocopy of some proof of identification. (Arkansas is the only other state that wants to see the copy of a photo ID.)

It also asks that the usual deadline for turning in absentee ballots — noon on Election Day — be extended, that drive-through voting be instituted and that those polling places that are open be kept clean.

[See how election officials in Alabama — and every other state — are preparing for November.]

Merrill is named as a defendant along with Gov. Kay Ivey, a fellow Republican, and various local election officials. Additional plaintiffs are nine elderly residents, most with health problems.

Among them is Ardis Albany, 73, who lives alone in Montgomery. She fears getting sick if she goes to her polling place and plans to leave the county on Election Day in order to qualify for an absentee ballot.

Another is Lucinda Livingston, 63, of Montgomery, who is largely housebound with heart and lung problems and has no scanner in her house to make a copy of her ID — and no way to get the required signatures from two witnesses or that of a notary.

The temporary relaxation of the excuse rules should guarantee a respectable turnout for one of the marquee Senate contests of the year — the runoff for the Republican nomination between former Attorney General Jeff Sessions and former Auburn football coach Tommy Tuberville.

The winner will be favored to unseat Democratic incumbent Doug Jones in the fall in one of the state's most deeply red states, where President Trump is a lock to secure nine electoral votes.

Read More

Stolen Land, Stolen Votes: Native Americans Defending the VRA Protects Us All – and We Should Support Them

Wilson Deschine sits at the "be my voice" voter registration stand at the Navajo Nation annual rodeo, in Window Rock.

Getty Images, David Howells

Stolen Land, Stolen Votes: Native Americans Defending the VRA Protects Us All – and We Should Support Them

On July 24, the Supreme Court temporarily blocked a Circuit Court order in a far-reaching case that could affect the voting rights of all Americans. Native American tribes and individuals filed the case as part of their centuries-old fight for rights in their own land.

The underlying subject of the case confronts racial gerrymandering against America’s first inhabitants, where North Dakota’s 2021 redistricting reduced Native Americans’ chances of electing up to three state representatives to just one. The specific issue that the Supreme Court may consider, if it accepts hearing the case, is whether individuals and associations can seek justice under Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act (VRA). That is because the Eighth Circuit Court of Appeals, contradicting other courts, said that individuals do not have standing to bring Section 2 cases.

Keep ReadingShow less
Trojan Horse: How CA Democrats Might Use Voter ID To Turn Back the Clock

Voter IDs are a requirement in almost every democracy in the world. But legitimate concerns over voter suppression efforts in the American south led to a different ethic inside Democratic Party circles.

Image generated by IVN staff.

Trojan Horse: How CA Democrats Might Use Voter ID To Turn Back the Clock

Voter IDs are a requirement in almost every democracy in the world from Europe to Mexico.

But legitimate concerns over voter suppression efforts in the American south led to a different ethic inside Democratic Party circles. Over time, Voter ID plans have been presumptively conflated with claims of “voter suppression” without much analysis of the actual impact of proposals.

Keep ReadingShow less
Person voting

New York City’s election has gotten a lot of attention over the last few weeks, and ranked choice voting is a big part of the reason why.

Hill Street Studios/Getty Images

New York City’s Ranked Choice Voting: Democracy That’s Accountable to Voters

New York City’s election has gotten a lot of attention over the last few weeks, and ranked choice voting is a big part of the reason why.

Heads turned when 33-year-old state legislator Zohran Mamdani knocked off Andrew Cuomo, a former governor from one of the Democratic Party’s most prominent families. The earliest polls for the mayoral primary this winter found Mamdani struggling to reach even 1 percent.

Keep ReadingShow less
Defend Democracy Against Bombardments on the Elections Front –A Three-Part Series
polling station poster on clear glass door

Defend Democracy Against Bombardments on the Elections Front –A Three-Part Series

In Part One, Pat Merloe explored the impact of the political environment, the need for constitutional defense against power-grabbing, and the malign effects of proof of citizenship on voting.

In the second part of the three-part series, Merloe explores the harmful effects of Executive Orders, the reversal of the Justice Department on voting rights, and the effects of political retribution.

Keep ReadingShow less