As reported first by the Troy Messenger, an effort is underway by the Pike County NAACP to have eligible inmates vote in Alabama’s upcoming November 6 general election.
Only inmates convicted of “crimes of moral turpitude” are disqualified from voting, however being in prison obviously bars inmates from heading to the polls on Election Day. This is where absentee voting comes in; yet, incarceration is not currently available as an option on the state’s absentee ballot request forms.
“There’s nowhere on the absentee ballot application that lists being incarcerated as a reason you can vote absentee,” Jamie Scarbrough, Pike County absentee election manager, explained. “You have to be out of the county, have a physical impairment, a work conflict, a member of the armed forces or a student in another county.”
Request form aside, Secretary of State John Merrill advised that inmates who have not been disqualified can still vote absentee from prison.
“Anybody that is incarcerated that has not been convicted of a disqualifying felony is still eligible to vote,” Merrill outlined. “They obviously cannot vote in person, so they would have to vote absentee. As long as they are not convicted of a disqualifying felony, they have a right to cast a ballot for the candidate of their choice.”
Even though some worry that misrepresenting one’s reason for voting absentee on the request form could lead to civil or even criminal liability, Merrill expressed his doubts that anyone would sue an individual for exercising their lawful right to vote and Pike County District Attorney Tom Anderson said inmates voting absentee would not likely be prosecuted since the law does allow them to vote.
“I’m willing to bet the law would allow it. I think the argument would be that the form didn’t comply with the law. They obviously haven’t updated the form … If I were them, I would write ‘incarcerated’ on the application because you’ve got to do something,” Anderson said.
There have been attempts to change the absentee ballot applications in recent state legislative sessions and Merrill said the issue will be brought forward again in the coming session, which begins in March.
“The questions on the absentee application have long been antiquated and out of date,” Merrill remarked. “If someone is incarcerated, we know where they are and know why they can’t get to the polls. We’ve worked on changing the absentee application the last two sessions to make sure it is usable, workable and meaningful, which it is not currently.”
Until then, groups like the Pike County NAACP are focused on registering eligible inmates to vote and getting them to submit their absentee ballots while incarcerated.
The statewide deadline to register for the November 6 general election is Monday, October 22, with three registration options: in person by the close of business at your county board of registrars’ office (typically 5:00 p.m.), online by 11:59 p.m. that day or postmarked by that day.
Per the Secretary of State’s website, the deadline to apply for an absentee ballot is Thursday, November 1. The deadline to return an absentee ballot is Monday, November 5.
See the full list of crimes that disqualify inmates from voting here.
Sean Ross is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn
