By Paul DeMarco
With the 2024 presidential election behind us and the upcoming Alabama legislative session less than a month away, lawmakers are already working to file bills as they prepare to return to Montgomery.
Democrats and some liberal advocacy groups are pushing legislation they call the Alabama Voting Rights Act, which would dramatically change elections in Alabama, and not in a good way.
The new law would allow:
-automatic voting rights for convicted felons once their sentences were completed;
-same day voter registration;
-expand absentee ballots.
Secretary of State Wes Allen has come out strongly in opposition to the bill on the basis that it will make elections much less secure and transparent. With a supermajority of Republicans in the Alabama House of Representatives and the Senate, certainly this proposal will not get close to the votes needed to pass. Last year, the passage of legislation to ban ballot harvesting to prevent voter fraud was an important step for Alabama elections. To ensure confidence in the voting process, legislators should continue to look at further steps in this upcoming session to fortify ballot security.
There have been too many questions following each election about the integrity of absentee voting and Legislators need to continue to work on strengthening the election process, not the opposite.
Paul DeMarco is a former member of the Alabama House of Representatives and is native of the state. He can be found on X, formerly Twitter, at @Paul_DeMarco.
