Three state court rulings ease voting restrictions ahead of US election | 2024 US election news

Court rulings in three different states – Nebraska, Alabama and Georgia – have reversed or stopped controversial measures that would have restricted voting in the upcoming United States elections.

The three decisions come at a time when the general elections on November 5th are coming up in just a few weeks. A number of local, state and national offices will be on ballots across the country, including in the presidential race.

The rulings also underscore the countless battles over voting access in the United States.

In Alabama, a judge struck down an apparent attempt to purge voter rolls. In Nebraska, another judge upheld the right to vote for those who had completed their sentence for a crime. And in Georgia, a court declared unconstitutional new rules that would have made it easier to challenge election results.

Some of Wednesday’s failed efforts are the result of persistent misinformation about the election.

Former President Donald Trump, the current Republican presidential candidate, has long claimed – falsely – that the US election was marred by fraud, sowing doubts about the accuracy of the results.

Trump has used this argument to question his loss to Democrat Joe Biden in the 2020 presidential campaign. Some Republican officials responded by calling for restrictive measures they said were necessary to protect against election fraud.

On Wednesday, however, voting rights groups hailed the numerous court decisions as victories for Americans’ constitutional rights.

“In a victory for Alabama voters, a federal court has BLOCKED Alabama’s illegal voter purge program targeting naturalized citizens,” the Campaign Legal Center wrote on the social media platform X.

The group was among those calling for the purge of voter rolls in the southern state.

“This is a huge victory for our customers,” it said.

Alabama

In the right-wing southern state of Alabama, U.S. District Judge Anna Manasco issued a preliminary injunction against a voter purification program launched by Republican Secretary of State Wes Allen in August.

Allen said the program aims to remove “non-citizens” from voter rolls in Alabama. However, studies have shown that claims about non-citizen voting have been grossly exaggerated.

The U.S. Department of Justice and voting rights groups also argued that Allen’s program — which rendered certain voters inactive — could disenfranchise citizens who should be able to vote legally.

All inactive voters would have had to provide additional documents to be able to vote on November 5th.

But opponents of the measure successfully argued that Allen’s move violated a federal law that prohibits the systematic removal of names from voter rolls 90 days before a federal election.

Additionally, the Secretary of State’s Chief of Staff, Clay Helms, testified that 2,000 of the 3,251 people classified as “inactive” were actually legally registered citizens.

More than 900 had already taken steps to restore their voter status as of September.

Nebraska

In a separate ruling in Midwestern Nebraska, the state’s highest court upheld a law giving felons who have completed their sentences the right to vote.

In doing so, the court rejected Republican Secretary of State Robert Evnen’s argument that the law passed in April violated the state constitution.

The court ordered him to implement the law immediately. Evnen said his office will comply with the decision and that state election officials have begun allowing citizens with felony convictions to register as voters.

Jonathan Topaz, an attorney for the American Civil Liberties Union, said the ruling means potentially thousands more citizens could vote.

“We are grateful that the Nebraska Supreme Court has invalidated this lawless attempt to reinstate permanent disenfranchisement,” Topaz said in a statement.

The April law is part of a trend in the U.S. aimed at increasing voting access for people convicted of a felony. Over the last quarter century, an estimated 26 states have taken similar measures to restore some degree of voting rights to people with felonies.

According to the National Conference of State Legislatures, about 10 states indefinitely suspend the right to vote for people who have committed felonies, either by requiring a pardon to restore voting rights or by requiring the formerly incarcerated to meet other restrictive standards.

Georgia

In a third decision, a judge in Georgia ruled Wednesday that seven new election rules adopted by the Republican-dominated State Election Board were “illegal, unconstitutional and void.”

One of the rules required poll workers to count ballots by hand on election day. Voting rights groups had said the requirement would slow the counting process and increase the chance of error.

Other rules affected how local officials certify election results. The wording of the rules sparked concerns that officials might refuse to certify their county’s vote counts if they claimed they were concerned about fraud. The judge ruled that they had a duty to certify the results.

Another rule would have required someone casting a mail-in ballot in person to provide a signature and photo identification.

Speaking to The Associated Press, former state representative Scot Turner, a Republican who denounced the new measures, called the ruling “a complete and total victory for the Constitution of the United States.”

“This isn’t about partying. This is about doing what is constitutional and restoring the separation of powers, and that is something every conservative in this country should care about and support,” he said.