House committee shoots down bill allowing legislature to call itself into special session; Approves bill banning curbside voting

—

March 3, 2021

MONTGOMERY — The Alabama House Constitution, Campaigns and Elections Committee on Wednesday morning took up a slate of important bills.

To start things off, HB 396 was first on the agenda. This bill, sponsored by Rep. Laura Hall (D-Huntsville), would legalize no-excuse absentee voting in the state. Before any discussion on the measure, Hall requested the bill be carried over to the call of the chair. Moving forward, HB 396 could come up at any subsequent meeting of the committee.

This comes after Secretary of State John Merrill in recent days withdrew his initial support for the bill. HB 396 has been met with staunch public pushback from the likes of Lt. Governor Will Ainsworth (R-AL), Congressman Mo Brooks (AL-05), former Ambassador Lynda Blanchard and ALGOP Chairman John Wahl.

The committee also voted down two bills during its meeting: HB 351 by Rep. Arnold Mooney (R-Indian Springs) and HB 21 by Rep. Becky Nordgren (R-Gadsden).

HB 21 would allow the legislature to call itself into a special session. A companion bill was given a favorable report by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee on Tuesday. However, House CC&E rejected a motion to give the bill a favorable report in a 3-4 vote.

Those voting to support the bill were Reps. Bob Fincher (R-Woodland), Wes Allen (R-Troy) and Matt Simpson (R-Daphne); those opposed were Reps. Chris Pringle (R-Mobile), Howard Sanderford (R-Huntsville), Juandalynn Givan (D-Birmingham) and Adline Clarke (D-Mobile).

Pringle, in remarks ahead of that vote, expressed concerns that the bill would lead in the future to the legislature constantly being convened in special sessions regarding issues that are not true emergencies.

Another hot-button bill taken up was HB 70 by Rep. Jamie Kiel (R-Russellville). This bill would prohibit a person from promising to make a payment to an individual or entity, on a per voter basis, in return for proof that a voter or a specific number of voters participated in a specific election. HB 70 was given a bipartisan favorable report in a 6-1 vote. Clarke was the only “nay” vote.

Additionally, the committee gave a favorable report to Allen’s HB 285. This bill would ban curbside voting and is a companion bill to SB 235, which was given a favorable report by the Senate Governmental Affairs Committee the previous day.

Sean Ross is the editor of Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @sean_yhn