WASHINGTON – By a vote of 5 to 4, the Supreme Court on Thursday blocked an order by a trial judge that would have made it easier for voters in three Alabama counties to use absentee ballots in this year’s second-round primary election. month.
The court’s unsigned brief order gave no reason, which is typical when it rules on emergency requests, and said the order would remain in effect while the appeal is advanced.
The four other liberal members of the court, Justices Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Stephen G. Breyer, Sonia Sotomayor and Elena Kagan, said they would have rejected Alabama’s request.
In March, Republican Gov. Kay Ivey postponed the election in light of the coronavirus pandemic. At the same time, Alabama State Overseeing Supervisor of State Elections John H. Merrill, a Republican, expanded the availability of absentee ballots for all voters who concluded that it was “impossible or unreasonable to vote in their place of vote. “
But Mr. Merrill did not relax two of the usual requirements for absentee voting: submitting a copy of a photo ID with a voter’s request to vote and submitting an affidavit signed by a notary public or two adult witnesses with the ballot itself.
Four voters and various groups sued to challenge those restrictions, saying they imposed an illegal burden on the right to vote in light of the health crisis. Making a copy of an ID, for example, can be difficult and dangerous during the pandemic, they said.
Alabama officials have dismissed that concern. Writing on Twitter, Mr. Merrill said: “When I come to your house and teach you how to use your printer, I can also show you how to tie your shoes and tie your tie. I could also go with you to Walmart or Kinko’s and make sure you know how to get a copy of your ID while you buy cigarettes or alcohol. “
Judge Abdul K. Kallon of the Federal District Court in Birmingham blocked election officials in Mobile, Jefferson and Lee counties from imposing the identification requirement on voters with disabilities or over the age of 65. It also blocked the notary or witness requirement for voters who file an affidavit that they are at increased medical risk.
Judge Kallon also allowed, but did not require, officials to use voting on the sidewalk.
A unanimous panel of three judges from the United States Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit, in Atlanta, refused to block Judge Kallon’s decision as the appeal progressed.
In a concurring opinion, Justices Robin Rosenbaum and Jill Pryor wrote that state officials were wrong to argue that “photo identification and witness requirements impose only” a little bit of work “on Alabam voters.”
“That perceives the burden,” they wrote. “The burden here is not to find two people or a notary to witness a signature or to find a location to copy a photo ID. Instead, the burden is tied to the fact that plaintiffs and those in a similar situation must be at risk of death or serious illness to meet Alabama’s absentee voter requirements, and therefore to exercise their right to vote. ” .
Asking the Supreme Court to intervene, state officials said Judge Kallon’s order had come too close to the election and threatened his integrity.
Their brief debate discussed ways that voters could safely meet the witness requirement.
“Nothing requires voters to close arms with their witnesses, or for a signer and witnesses to unmask before signing,” the report said. “A particularly cautious voter could meet his witnesses outside or in a large room and then each will sign the piece of paper, with everyone masked and six or more feet from each other. In fact, there is nothing to prevent witnesses from looking at the voter’s sign from a different room entirely or through a window, so that the voter never needs to be in the same room as the witnesses. “
In response, voters’ attorneys said the state had offered no good reason “to justify applying the witness or photo ID requirements to high-risk voters in the midst of a pandemic.”
