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Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Survey of 11 Alabama counties finds differences in absentee ballot rejection rates
Voters wait in line at Farley Community Church during on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024 in Huntsville, Alabama. A survey of 11 counties by the Alabama League of Women Voters found significant differences in Alabama absentee ballot rejection rates from county to county. (Eric Schultz for Alabama Reflector) A recent survey found significant differences in individual counties' absentee ballot rejection rates. The survey of 11 counties by the League of Women Voters found that almost 2,200 ballots — about 3.6% of all absentee ballots cast — were rejected in the counties on Election Day last year. But those rates could vary considerably. In Madison County, the home of Huntsville, only about 1% of ballots were rejected. In Mobile, the number rose to 8%. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX 'It is a snapshot of what is really going on with the whole state,' said Kathy Jones, president of the League of Women Voters of Alabama. 'When I look at the numbers, from purely a data perspective, my conclusion is that the system has some real flaws in the way that it operates.' The survey excluded most counties in Alabama, so it is difficult to extrapolate the attrition rate to the rest of the state. The election officials from the various counties surveyed did not state why ballots were excluded. State law outlines the rules over which absentee ballots must be set aside and not counted, but the Alabama's Secretary of State's Office gives county boards of registrars wide latitude for setting policies related to absentee ballots, which can lead to disparities between counties in which absentee ballots get counted and which don't. Alabama is one of 17 states that does not allow voters to fix errors on their ballots prior to Election Day, according to Movement Advancement Project, a nonprofit think tank based in Colorado. That, coupled with the state's exacting rules pertaining to absentee ballots, can lead to voters getting rejected. Democrats introduced legislation to allow people to cure ballot affidavits that would allow election officials to be removed from the envelope and placed into the voting machine, but the bill did not move out of committee this year. In interviews, three ballot managers said that the decision for whether to reject or accept an absentee ballot envelope is made by a poll worker who observes each of the ballots, but that decision is not discretionary. 'You fill out the form and check boxes, and then you are supposed to sign,' said Jimmy Bell, the absentee election manager for Conecuh County, where the rejection rate was about 3%. 'Then you have to put the right district. It was just some stuff that they did not do.' Poll workers may not verify the identity of the person who signed the affidavit but check whether the person actually signed the affidavit envelope required by Alabama law. For most of the ballots, it is clear if the voter made an error, and they are unable to accept the ballot to be counted as part of the election. The registrar of voters for each county, however, may have individual process for dealing with ballots with discrepancies. 'Put the ballot that you don't have an objection to in this pile, put the ballot that you have an objection to in this other pile,' Bell says to his poll workers. 'Then everybody has to rule on it. One person doesn't rule, the way I do it.' Other places are slightly different. 'If there is ever any question, they get together and look at it,' said Brian York, the absentee election manager for Talladega County, where the rejection rate was 2.7%. 'That is my office, I don't know about anywhere else. If one of the poll workers has a question, if it looks unusual, they are going to ask another poll worker.' Messages seeking comment were left with the Mobile County Probate Office. Voting by absentee ballot in Alabama is difficult. The state requires voters to provide a reason for voting absentee. Voters must then navigate a series of rules and procedures that, should they miss even one, would invalidate their entire ballot. Alabama also requires voters to finish ballot applications at least seven days before an election, and the ballots themselves must be received at the elections office by noon the day of the election. That is different from other states, according to Christian Grose, a professor of political science and international relations at the University of Southern California who studies the election process. 'Arizona allows you to mail in your absentee ballot.,' he said. 'As long as it is postmarked by the election, officials will count it even if it arrives a few days later.' Arizona's acceptance and count rate was 99.6%. The rate for Massachusetts, a state largely dominated by Democrats, was 98.8% in the 2022 midterms. Researchers say ballot curing is the key difference between those states and Alabama. Curing a ballot is a two-step process in which voters submit their absentee ballots that are then reviewed by election officials to ensure the person voting is registered to vote and that person who cast the ballot is the same person who received the ballot. 'States like that, Arizona is one, California is one, a number of western states, that allow people to more actively say, 'Yes, that was my ballot, not fraud,' allows you to still have election integrity to protect against fraud, but still gives people a chance to confirm that it was, in fact, their signature and it just changed,' Grose said. This would help with younger voters who traditionally have lower rates of turnout than the rest of the electorate. A study published by the MIT election lab in 2021 found that ballot curing cuts rejection rates almost in half. Several lawmakers introduced several bills aimed at increasing voter turnout and enhancing opportunities for voters to participate in elections within this cycle. HB 97, sponsored by Rep. Kenyatte Hassell, D-Montgomery, during the current session, would have introduced a system of ballot curing in Alabama. The bill did not advance during the session. 'People have been doing this for the past 10 years in the voting cycle,' said Hassell, who has introduced the legislation in previous sessions. 'Their vote never counted because they didn't know they made those mistakes, of not signing one particular piece of paper, or not checking a box, or something, of whatever it could be to not have their absentee ballot count.' Currently, when an election official receives an absentee ballot from a voter, the absentee ballot may not be removed from the affidavit envelope if it is defective. Hassell's legislation would have required the absentee election manager to let a voter cure the ballot affidavit to address the problem. 'I did a lot of campaigns, and we would count absentee ballots,' Hassell said. 'We would say, 'This person voted by absentee, and the person said that he supported the candidate.' So, we would count the vote. We counted absentee ballots, but then you turn around and you don't see the results, you don't see the correct number of absentee ballots cast. You say, 'Something is not right. There is a problem.'' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
18-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Study: Racial voter turnout gap in Alabama in 2024 was highest in two decades
Voters at Alabama A&M University pass a voting sign after voting at Elmore Gym during Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024 in Huntsville, Alabama. A report from the Brennan Center found that the racial voting gap between whites, Black and nonwhites in Alabama widened to its largest level in 20 years. (Eric Schultz for Alabama Reflector) A new study found that voter turnout gaps between white and nonwhite Alabamians hit a two-decade high in 2024. The Brennan Center for Justice, a liberal nonprofit law and public policy institute based in New York, found that turnout among eligible white voters was 65% last year. Among nonwhites, the turnout was 51%. Those two figures respectively are the highest they have been for the past two decades. In 2008 when former President Barack Obama was first on the ballot, about 60% of Black Alabamians eligible to vote cast ballots, compared to 59% of whites. Nonwhites overall had a turnout of about 56%. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX But white turnout in the state has increased since then, peaking at 66% in 2020 before falling back to 65% last year. Black turnout fell to 50% in 2016; bounced back to 58% in 2020 but fell to 51% last year. 'We know that gap has grown, and in 2024, it has taken an almost turbo level increase in its scope,' said Kareem Crayton, vice president of the Washington, DC, office for the Brennan Center. 'It is a very disturbing trend, particularly when we see the level of diversity in this country is far greater than it has been.' The study did not delve deeply into some of the causes, but cited more restrictive voting policies that mostly Republican-led states have imposed since the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Shelby County vs. Holder that invalidated Section 5 of the 1965 Voting Rights Act. The law sought to end discriminatory practices in many parts of the South that prevented minorities, but especially Blacks, from voting. Section 5 of the law required states with histories of voter disenfranchisement to submit any changes to voting laws to the U.S. Department of Justice for approval. The court struck down preclearance in Shelby County v. Holder, a 2013 decision out of Shelby County just south of Birmingham. Chief Justice John Roberts, writing for the majority, said the 'country had changed.' 'We can't say for certain what caused the white–Black turnout gap to widen in Alabama, but the surge in restrictive voting laws since the Shelby County v. Holder decision has likely played a role in depressing turnout among Black voters,' the study states. 'Our research shows that a decade after the ruling gutted the Voting Rights Act, these gaps are growing everywhere, but they are widening especially quickly in places like Alabama that were subject to the 'preclearance condition' that was suspended in Shelby County.' Richard Fording, a professor in the political science department at the University of Alabama, agreed in an interview that voting restrictions could contribute to the gap but that other factors could be at play, including the enthusiasm Obama sparked among Black voters. 'The years 2008 and 2012 were years where we saw unusually high turnout among Black voters, compared to previous years,' he said in an email following an interview. 'The other development that is specific to Alabama is that the state has undergone a significant shift in the balance of partisan control since 2010.' Both Fording and Crayton also said that the lack of competitive elections contributes to the gap and low voter turnout in the state. 'Nobody wants to go to a game where the outcome is already (known), that is the real concern,' Crayton said. In the 2nd Congressional District, the Black eligible population was almost 50%, which gave Democrats the chance to pick up another seat. 'It is not just gerrymandering, it is policies that make it less likely to be able to obtain an ID, to be able to cast a ballot,' Crayton said. 'It is the limited opportunities people have to register; it is the purges. All these things work in a cumulative way that would drag down turnout for voters who may want to participate, but who find the hurdles are too advanced.' The net effect is that the electorate only represents a portion of the total possible number of voters. 'You need to have all people voting in order for democracy to work,' said Kathy Jones, president of the League of Women Voters of Alabama. 'It is so important to hear everyone's voice.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
05-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Scottsboro officials' terms would be extended a year under Alabama Legislature bills
A voter walks into Jackson Way Baptist Church during Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024 in Huntsville, Ala. Two bills in the Legislature would extend the terms of officials in Scottsboro to get the city on the same election cycle as the rest of the state. (Eric Schultz for Alabama Reflector) Lawmakers are considering legislation that would modify the election cycle for a municipality located in the northeastern part of Alabama. Both HB 132, sponsored by Rep. Mike Kirkland, R-Scottsboro, and SB 139, filed by Senate Majority Leader Steve Livingston, R-Scottsboro, extend the term for the mayor of Scottsboro; the city council and the local board of education. Kirkland said in an interview that the legislation aims to put the city 'on the same cycle as other municipal elections across the state.' Scottsboro was excluded from a 2021 law that covered most Alabama cities. 'We were kind of out there, we weren't part of the original bill that moved the elections, so what this does is it gets us caught up with everybody else,' said. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX The two bills, nearly identical in language, will lengthen the terms of Scottsboro City Council that expire in 2026 to 2027, when elections for the next term will take place, and occur afterward on a four-year cycle. The bills would extend the mayor's term from 2028 to 2029. School board terms that expire in either 2028 or 2030 will be extended to 2029 and 2031, respectively. All future municipal and school board elections will take place in August. 'After the effective date of this act, if no candidate for mayor, member of the city council, or member of the city board of education receives a majority of votes cast in the regular municipal election, a second or run-off election shall be held on the fourth Tuesday following the regular election,' the bill states The Alabama Legislature in 2021 enacted a law standardizing municipal elections across the state and extending municipal official terms by a year. Scottsboro was not included in the law, requested from the Alabama League of Municipalities, because the city already had rules in place governing when its elections would take place. 'That affected all municipalities with the exception of a handful with local legislative bills that directed their elections,' said Scottsboro Mayor Jim McCamy, elected in 2020. 'The city of Scottsboro was one of those cities. We had two local bills way back in the 1950s that directed our elections, and because of that, we and any of the others that it didn't apply to had to have a local bill to put us on the same cycle as the rest of the state.' Local officials had been working with their state legislators to get legislation enacted, but their bills stalled because the Legislature had other priorities. Scottsboro is working to get legislation passed in the current session. Kirkland added that altering the terms for officials to get on the same cycle as the state would increase voter turnout. 'Typically, there is a competition for resources for ballots, but more specifically electronic vote-counting tabulators,' said Rob Johnston, director of legal services for the Alabama League of Municipalities. 'When the counties are using them for county and statewide elections, then the municipalities will have to find their own resources, and poll workers as well.' Scottsboro also wants to remove themselves from the presidential cycle to downplay the partisan impact of its elections because municipal officials are nonpartisan, not affiliated with a political party. 'Have you ever seen a Republican or Democrat pothole in a street?' McCamy said. 'I haven't, and I never have. It doesn't matter; it is what it is.' SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
