Greater Birmingham Ministries v. Alabama

161 F. Supp. 3d 1104, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18891, 2016 WL 627709
CourtDistrict Court, N.D. Alabama
DecidedFebruary 17, 2016
Docket2:15-cv-02193-LSC
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 161 F. Supp. 3d 1104 (Greater Birmingham Ministries v. Alabama) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, N.D. Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Greater Birmingham Ministries v. Alabama, 161 F. Supp. 3d 1104, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18891, 2016 WL 627709 (N.D. Ala. 2016).

Opinion

MEMORANDUM OF OPINION

L. SCOTT COOGLER, UNITED STATES DISTRICT JUDGE

“No right is more precious in a free country than that of having a voice in the election of those who make the laws under which, as good citizens, we must live.” Wesberry v. Sanders, 376 U.S. 1, 17, 84 S.Ct. 526, 11 L.Ed.2d 481 (1964). The constitutional right to vote no doubt means that every individual who wishes to cast a vote is free to do so without undue burden. However, the right to vote also includes the right to participate in an electoral process that is structured so that those who do vote are able to rest assured that their votes are counted. After all, any fraudulent vote cast effectively cancels the right of a citizen to have his or her vote counted. The issues presented in this matter require balancing these sometimes competing interests.

On December 2, 2015, Plaintiffs, Greater Birmingham Ministries and the Alabama State Conference of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (“NAACP”), brought this action seeking to invalidate Alabama’s voter identification law, which has already been in effect since 2014 through one primary and one general statewide election. The law requires voters to show some form of photo identification before casting a ballot, subject to some exceptions— including one providing that if an election - official can positively identify a would-be voter at the polling place, that individual need not present a valid form of photo identification.

On January 8, 2016, Plaintiffs filed a motion for a mandatory preliminary injunction, asking this Court to order John Merrill, Alabama’s Secretary of State, to cease administering the “positively identify” provision of the law, Ala. Code § 17-9-30(e), as written, and instead implement it [1108]*1108in a way that Plaintiffs feel is appropriate — a way that would allow registered voters who lack a photo ID to cast a ballot if they can produce certain non-photo identification documents or information. (Doc. 5.) Plaintiffs seek this relief for all of Alabama’s 2016 elections, the most immediate of which are the March 1, 2016 primary and the possible April 12, 2016 runoff.1

To be clear, Plaintiffs are not challenging the photo ID requirement of Alabama’s voter identification law in their motion and are not asking this Court to enjoin it. Instead, they are asking the Court to rewrite the positively identify provision in a way that circumvents the photo identification requirement altogether — without actually providing proof that the photo ID requirement is unduly burdensome on Alabama voters. For the reasons stated below, the motion for a preliminary injunction is due to be denied.

I. BACKGROUND

Alabama has required voters to present some form of identification before voting for over ten years. In 2003, Alabama adopted a voter identification law that required voters to present one of fourteen forms of non-photo or photo ID before casting a ballot.2 2003 Ala. Acts 381. In addition, a voter could cast a ballot if he or she was “positively identified by two election officials.” Id. At that time, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, 52 U.S.C. §§ 10101-10702 (the “VRA”), required Alabama to seek preclearance for any change in voting requirements from either the U.S. Attorney General or a three-judge court in the United States District Court for the District of Columbia. See 52 U.S.C. § 10304. The Attorney General precleared Alabama’s 2003 voter ID law, including the positively identify provision, and it was in effect until the current photo ID law became effective in 2014.

On June 15, 2011, Alabama Governor Robert Bentley signed into law Ala. Code § 17-9-30 (the current “Voter ID Law”), which repealed the 2003 voter ID law and required voters, with some exceptions, to present a photo ID before casting a ballot. The text of the Voter ID law expressly delayed enforcement of it until the 2014 statewide elections, which allowed time for the Secretary of State’s office to educate Alabamians about the photo ID requirement and time for voters to acquire a photo ID if they did not have one. See 2011 Ala. Acts 673. (“The photo identification requirements of this act shall be operative in the first statewide primary for 2014. The voter identification requirements prior to the effective date of this act shall continue to apply in any election prior to that election,”). In 2013, the Supreme Court handed down its decision in Shelby County v. Holder, — U.S.-, 133 S.Ct. 2612, 186 L.Ed.2d 651 (2013), which eliminated the preclearance requirement. Plaintiffs [1109]*1109assert that Alabama only began enforcement of the Voter ID law after the Shelby County decision, insinuating that the State was waiting on that decision to avoid having to obtain preclearance. This, however, is misleading because the original bill as passed by the Legislature and signed by the Governor in 2011 expressly delayed enforcement until 2014.

Alabama’s Voter ID Law is certainly not an outlier but is instead one of many state laws that require voters to present a photo ID before voting.3 These laws have been passed to combat voter fraud and ensure integrity in the voting process. They are, in part, consistent with the proposals put forth by American University’s Commission on Federal Election Reform.4 The Commission, chaired by former President Jimmy Carter and former U.S. Secretary of State James A. Baker III, encouraged states to move towards requiring voters to present photo IDs before being allowed to vote. The Commission found that even in the absence of extensive voter fraud, the use of photo IDs would inspire public confidence in the voting process and act as a deterrent to fraud. See Building Confidence in U.S. Elections at § 2.5 (“Photo IDs currently are needed to board a plane, enter federal buildings, and cash a check. Voting is equally important.”).

As noted, at least ten states, including Alabama, have adopted some form of a photo ID law in recent years. Notably, the Supreme Court in Crawford v. Marion County Election Board, 553 U.S. 181, 128 S.Ct. 1610, 170 L.Ed.2d 574 (2008), the Eleventh Circuit in Common Cause/Georgia v. Billups, et al., 554 F.3d 1340 (11th Cir.2009), and the Seventh Circuit in Frank v. Walker, 768 F.3d 744 (7th Cir.2014), respectively found Indiana, Georgia, and Wisconsin’s photo ID laws constitutional and not in violation of the VRA. Alabama’s Voter ID Law is highly similar, if not identical, to those states’ laws.

For example, Alabama, Georgia, Indiana, and Wisconsin all require voters to present a photo ID when voting, and if they do not have a photo ID, voters can east a provisional ballot and provide their local election officials with a photo ID within a specified time. See Ala.

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161 F. Supp. 3d 1104, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18891, 2016 WL 627709, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/greater-birmingham-ministries-v-alabama-alnd-2016.