Alabama: Lawsuit seeks to expand Alabama voting options amid outbreak | Brian Lyman/Montgomery Advertiser
Three civil rights organizations filed a federal lawsuit Friday seeking to loosen some absentee voting requirements and overturn bans on curbside voting amid the COVID-19 outbreak. The Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC); the NAACP Legal Defense Fund, and the Alabama Disabilities Advocacy Program (ADAP) filed the lawsuit on behalf of several plaintiffs, including four voters with medical conditions that would leave them vulnerable to COVID-19 if required to vote in-person. “This burden on the right to vote will fall more heavily upon certain groups—older people, persons with disabilities, and Black Alabamians, among others,” the lawsuit said. The lawsuit names Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey; Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill and 4 county election officials as defendants. Ivey and Merrill’s offices said in separate statements on Friday afternoon that they had not yet been served with the lawsuit.