Attorneys representing a state NAACP chapter asked the 11th Circuit on Friday to throw out a district court ruling which dismissed their challenge to Alabama’s voter ID law without a trial. The Alabama NAACP, joined by Interfaith group Greater Birmingham Ministries and three individual voters, claims that the state’s photo voter identification law was specifically crafted by lawmakers to discriminate against thousands of black and Latino voters. In January, U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler ruled that the 2011 law, which requires absentee and in-person voters to show photo ID in order to cast a ballot, is constitutional.
Coogler found no evidence that the Alabama legislature passed the law with “racially discriminatory intent or for a racially discriminatory purpose.”
Under the law, which went into effect in 2014, Alabama voters must present at least one form of photo ID to cast their ballots. The state offers a variety of free methods for obtaining photo IDs, including in-home visits by a mobile ID-issuing unit.
The Alabama NAACP argues that over 100,000 black and Latino voters do not have photo ID and face financial and transportation burdens which prevent them from obtaining one.
Full Article: 11th Circuit Hears NAACP Challenge to Alabama Voter ID Law.