In a communist lawfare case aimed at halting one of the nation’s most rigorous laws on election integrity, President Joe Biden’s heavily armed Department of Justice entered the fray.  ,
Weighing in to show the government’s place ( or outright risk ), the DOJ has filed a so- called speech of attention in a lawsuit against Alabama’s laws banning ballot harvesting.  ,
No Funny Organization, please.
The rules, signed by Republican Gov. Kay Ivey in March, prohibits anyone but the voter to ask his absentee ballot, with some exceptions, and makes charging people for” collecting, prefilling, completing, obtaining, or delivering” vote a Class B misdemeanor — punishable by up to 20 years in prison and$ 30, 000 in charges. A Class C felony punishes individuals who receive payment or items for ballot planting, which includes a maximum 10-year word and fines.  ,
Along with other crucial voter-integrity provisions, Senate Bill 1 ( SB1 ) requires that ballot applicants state that they are not a felon who is disqualified to vote.  ,
” Here in Alabama, we are committed to ensuring our elections are free and fair”, Ivey said in signing SB1. ” Under my watch, there will be no funny business in Alabama elections” . ,
Attorney General of Alabama Steve Marshall, Secretary of State Wes Allen, and area attorneys in the Ply Express are just a few accused that leftwing activist groups have sued.  ,
Does taking action?
The federal problem asserts that SB1 is a “vague and broad statute that turns political and friendly voting engagement into a serious crime” and is filed by many of the common lawfare suspects, including the ACLU of Alabama, Campaign Legal Center, Legal Defense Fund, and Southern Poverty Law Center. The plaintiffs claim that criminally punishing compensated ballot harvesters “directly and severely burdens” their freedom of speech by restricting core political speech and expressive activities designed to encourage absentee voting. The law, according to the complaint, also limits their “associational rights” to engage in get- out- the- vote efforts, some of which are at the heart of the election- integrity concerns that necessitated the statute.
But it’s the claim that the law “disenfranchises disabled voters, senior citizen voters, voters of color, eligible incarcerated voters, and many other Alabamians who depend on assistance to vote”, that got Biden’s Justice Department’s hackles up.  ,
The DOJ asserts in its statement of interest that it “promotes the correct and uniform interpretation of voting laws protecting the rights of voters with disabilities.” Additionally, the organization filed a lawsuit to overturn Ohio’s law that only permits a postal worker or a close relative to administer a person’s absentee ballot. Federal officials allege that Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act, which allows disabled voters to receive assistance from “anyone they choose, as long as that person is not an agent of the voter’s employer or union, is violated by the voter- integrity laws in both cases.
Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke suggests that the laws prevent people with disabilities from getting their ballots.  ,
The Justice Department will take action to protect the right to vote for all eligible voters, including those who need assistance casting absentee ballots, according to Clarke, a former NAACP Legal Defense Fund attorney who currently serves in the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division. She is the same assistant attorney who most recently admitted to lying to the Senate about not having been detained on violent charges. As the New York Post reported, during her 2021 confirmation hearing, Clarke responded “no” when asked by Sen. Tom Cotton, R- Ark., whether she’d “ever been arrested for or accused of committing a violent crime against any person”.
Multiple Convictions
The DOJ’s blustering appears misdirected. Alabama’s ballot- harvesting prohibition law makes clear that disabled, blind, or illiterate residents eligible to vote “may be given assistance by an individual of the voter’s choice”. The exception, of course, is an agent of the voter’s employer or a representative of the voter’s union, as laid out in the Voting Rights Act.  ,
In an editorial published before the SB1 ultimately became law, Secretary of State Wes Allen stated that “ballot harvesting should not be a job description.  ,
There have been numerous instances of absentee ballot fraud convictions in Alabama over the past ten years, he said.  ,
Liberal activists contend that this election-related fraud is not a problem and that it is not even worthwhile to pass a law to stop ballot-gathering. However, the Heritage Foundation’s database for election fraud records more than a dozen instances of Alabama’s absentee ballot fraud, including one instance where a judge overturned the preliminary election results in a Wetumpka City Council race.  ,
” On election night, it appeared that Washington’s opponent, Percy Gill, who was the incumbent, had won by three votes”, Heritage notes. Washington objected to the outcome, and the judge threw out eight absentee ballots for Gill because the signatures had been falsified or had not been notarized or signed in front of the required number of witnesses, and declared Washington the winner after a trial in which live witnesses and forensics experts testified.
Democrats like to say voter fraud is n’t widespread, but as the Alabama case illustrates, a few fraudulent votes can turn an election. And every erroneous vote is an attack on free and fair elections.  ,
Hans von Spakovsky, a former member of the Federal Election Commission and Senior Legal Fellow in the Heritage Foundation’s Edwin Meese III Center for Legal and Judicial Studies, said,” They’ve used’widespread’ for years as a way to downplay any concern about it. We do n’t have any “regular” bank robberies, but we do have enough of them to put in very detailed security measures to stop them. The same applies to election fraud.
Alabama Votes Are Not for Sale, you ask?
Allen claimed earlier this year that the absentee ballot law’s previous absentee ballot law did not include comprehensive penalties for accused ballot traffickers.
“]T] here was nobody being prosecute]d ] because the law that we amended, the penalty provisioning was very vague”, the secretary of state told the publication.  ,
Alabama is the only state in the nation that, according to Ballotpedia,” specifies that only the voter may return their mail ballot.” In most cases,” someone chosen by the voter, or someone else chosen by the voter,” is permitted to return mail ballots on their behalf in twenty-four states and the District of Columbia, while in thirteen states, this is prohibited. According to Ballotpedia, there are n’t any laws in another dozen states that prohibit the return of ballots on the behalf of voters.  ,
Allen’s office said he ca n’t comment on the substance of the lawsuit and directed questions to the attorney general’s office. But the secretary of state” stands by his previous statements” supporting Alabama’s ballot- harvesting ban.  ,
SB1 gives Alabama voters strong protection from activists who profit from the absentee election process. I stand firm in my support of SB1 because now, under Alabama law, Alabama votes are not for sale”, Allen said.  ,
Matt Kittle covers The Federalist’s senior elections coverage. An award- winning investigative reporter and 30- year veteran of print, broadcast, and online journalism, Kittle previously served as the executive director of Empower Wisconsin.
