Alabama Voting Restrictions Properly Halted for Primary Runoff

The Eleventh Circuit affirmed Thursday a trial court’s order blocking Alabama from enforcing certain voting restrictions ahead of July’s primary runoff election while the state defends the constitutionality of its election rules in the midst of a growing number of Covid-19 cases.

Alabama’s primary runoff election is scheduled for July 14. The trial court’s preliminary injunction includes blocking the state from prohibiting, even for those at high-risk of contracted the coronavirus, “curbside voting,” a method of voting promoted by those challenging the state’s election rules but disliked by Alabama election officials.

Judges Robin S. Rosenbaum, Jill A. Pryor, and Britt C. Grant denied the state’s emergency motion for a stay of the injunction pending appeal.

Two written concurrences accompanied the one sentence order for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit, giving insight into the judges’ reasoning for their decision.

“To die, to [vote]; To [vote]: perchance to dream: ay, there’s the rub,” Rosenbaum and Pryor wrote in their separate written opinion concurring with the decision to deny Alabama’s emergency stay request.

The “rub” is that Alabama still expects certain individuals who are at higher risk of catching Covid-19, or of suffering from related complications, to comply with voter ID and witness signature requirements, the judges said.

Grant concurred in the court’s decision with a separate written opinion.

The trial court’s order is “dramatic both in its disregard for Alabama’s constitutional authority and in its confidence in the court’s own policymaking judgments,” Grant said.

However, she said, it appears as though the wrong parties appealed the trial court’s “remarkable revisions to the State’s absentee ballot rules for its primary election,” so she agreed with the decision to deny the stay on standing grounds.

The NAACP Legal Defense & Education Fund Inc., the Southern Poverty Law Center, and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program represented the plaintiffs.

The Alabama Attorney General’s office represented the state.

The case is People First of Alabama v. Merrill, 11th Cir., No. 20-12184, 6/25/20.