SB1 - Preventing Ballot Harvesting and Protecting Alabama's Absentee Election Process

Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen
SB1 – Preventing Ballot Harvesting and
Protecting Alabama’s Absentee Election Process

In Alabama, a registered voter “may apply for and vote an absentee ballot” as an accommodation for being unable to vote in-person on election day for one or more of 8 statutory reasons. ALA. CODE § 17-11-3(a)(1)-(8). However, absentee voting is not offered as a general vote-by-mail alternative.

Also, the act of willfully aiding any person to unlawfully vote an absentee ballot, knowingly and unlawfully voting an absentee ballot, as well as any voter who votes both an absentee and a regular ballot at any election is a Class C felony under existing Alabama law. ALA. CODE § 17-17-24(a).

With the recent enactment of SB1, codified at Alabama Code Section 17-11-4, the State has ensured that the absentee voting process will be driven by voters, not other interested parties, thereby protecting it from insidious corruption and undue influence. SB1’s reforms prohibit absentee ballot application buying and make it illegal to pay or to be paid by a third-party to pre-fill and/or collect absentee ballot applications. Applications must be submitted by the applicant. Prefilling an application is prohibited to cut down on potential fraud (e.g., through mass applications) and confusion (e.g., when voters receive misaddressed or unsolicited forms).

More specifically, SB1 creates 4 new absentee voting election offenses:

1. Prefilled-Application Provision: “[i]t shall be unlawful for any person to knowingly distribute an absentee ballot application to a voter that is prefilled with the voter’s name or any other information required on the application form.” ALA. CODE § 17-11-4(b)(2).

2. Submission Provision: “it shall be unlawful for an individual to submit a completed absentee ballot application to the absentee election manager other than his or her own application,” except in cases where a voter requires emergency medical treatment “within five days before an election.” ALA. CODE § 17-11-4(c)(2).

3. Compensation Prohibition: criminalizes trafficking absentee ballot applications, specifying different offenses for the two different actors in the transaction:

   1. It is a Class C felony for “a third party to knowingly receive a payment or gift for distributing, ordering, requesting, collecting, prefilling, obtaining, or delivering a voter’s absentee ballot application.” ALA. CODE § 17-11-4(d)(1).

   2. It is a Class B felony “for a person to knowingly pay or provide a gift to a third party to distribute, order, request, collect, prefill, complete, obtain, or deliver a voter's absentee ballot application.” ALA. CODE § 17-11-4(d)(2).

Importantly, SB1 expressly provides an accommodation for disability voting assistance identical to federal law: “Any voter who requires assistance to vote by reason of blindness, disability, or inability to read or write may be given assistance by an individual of the voter’s choice, other than the voter’s employer or agent of that employer or officer or agent of the voter’s union.” Compare ALA. CODE § 17-11-4(e), with 52 U.S.C. § 10508 (same).