HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Senate Bill 1 would prohibit any person from ordering, requesting, collecting, prefilling, obtaining, or delivering an absentee ballot application or absentee ballot to a voter in certain circumstances.
Limestone County NAACP Political Action Chair Diane Steele believes this is a major inconvenience. "SB1 will prohibit our most vulnerable citizens from being able to receive the necessary help that is needed to vote absentee. We have people that are homebound, people that are in nursing homes. So, you know, for us to come up with a way to prevent these citizens from having access to the ballot is very unfair in our opinion."
This bill also threatens to charge individuals with a crime for assisting those who ask for help to exercise their voting rights through using an absentee ballot. If charged, initially, there is a misdemeanor charge. However, if there is cash exchanged or cash offered for this assistance, then it becomes both class b and class c felony. For Lift Our Vote Lead Organizer Gloria Hollins that is not the only pressing concern. "One of the things that we largely don't discuss is the digital divide and just having access to getting an application to fill out an absentee ballot can pose a challenge. Now this application is available on the secretary of state's website, but if you can't operate the internet enough to get onto the internet, how are you going to get to a website, sift through information to get what you up to, what you want to get, and what is the likelihood that you have a printer with ink?"
There are also some exceptions to SB1. Among them, it shall not be a violation if an individual, of the voter's choosing, provides assistance to a voter due to the voter being blind, disabled, or unable to read or write. A public hearing will be held tomorrow at 1:30p in Montgomery at the Capitol in Room 852. "Join us to speak against this bill," Steele continued.