ACLU Wants Alabama Felons to Vote - Alabama Should Uphold Law

By Tim Grubbs
July 22, 2008
Law

The Associated Press reports today about a shaky law written by some shaky legislators in Alabama that leaves the door wide open to allow a lawsuit being brought from the American Civil Liberties Union requesting that a majority of felons be permitted to vote.

The AP article says that the ACLU is filing suit to restore the rights of all felons, except those convicted of certain crimes, which are listed in the state’s constitution. According to the article, “The lawsuit claims Alabama law is unclear on the subject, citing a bill passed by the Legislature in 2003 that says felons can vote unless convicted on ‘crimes of moral turpitude,’ but never defines those crimes.”

Now, to be clear, Alabama’s State Legislature website is a travesty of technology in our modern era (no big surprise - it is, after all, Alabama). Even so, our team did a bit of digging around and discovered that Alabama relies on six different state Constitutions as the framework for their legislative code. We did some searching through the antiquated website, and found some really great legal wording that ought to be in effect, if it isn’t.

Unfortunately, it isn’t clear from browsing the website if this information is actually up to date. However, we did find this statute as part of the Alabama Code of 1975 (the most current legal compilation from which current legislation is enacted):

The Code of Alabama 1975

Section 17-3-30

Qualifications of electors generally.

Any person possessing the qualifications of an elector set out in Article 8 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as modified by federal law, and not laboring under any disqualification listed therein, shall be an elector, and shall be entitled to register and to vote at any election by the people.

So, after some more painstaking searching, we found Article 8 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, which says this about being qualified to vote:

Alabama Constitution 1901

Article 8 - SECTION 182

Certain persons disqualified from registering and voting.

The following persons shall be disqualified both from registering, and from voting, namely:

All idiots and insane persons; those who shall by reason of conviction of crime be disqualified from voting at the time of the ratification of this Constitution; those who shall be convicted of treason, murder, arson, embezzlement, malfeasance in office, larceny, receiving stolen property, obtaining property or money under false pretenses, perjury, subornation of perjury, robbery, assault with intent to rob, burglary, forgery, bribery, assault and battery on the wife, bigamy, living in adultery, sodomy, incest, rape, miscegenation, crime against nature, or any crime punishable by imprisonment in the penitentiary, or of any infamous crime or crime involving moral turpitude; also, any person who shall be convicted as a vagrant or tramp, or of selling or offering to sell his vote or the vote of another, or of buying or offering to buy the vote of another, or of making or offering to make a false return in any election by the people or in any primary election to procure the nomination or election of any person to any office, or of suborning any witness or registrar to secure the registration of any person as an elector. (We added the emphasis)

Now, according to the AP’s report about the ACLU lawsuit, they claim a 2003 legislation adopts a list of 15 crimes which disqualify a person from voting. By our count, according to the legal code available from the State of Alabama online, there are 26 crimes that disqualify a person from voting.

Maybe the Alabama code online is outdated. Maybe the AP got the story from the ACLU wrong. Maybe the State of Alabama doesn’t even know what it’s constitutions say, which by all accounts of the information online, would not be surprising.

No matter. It just goes to show that legislators in 1901 had more sense than those of today. We say, let’s adopt a federal law, based on the 1901 Alabama Constitution, and put up signs at the entrance of every voting presinct across the nation from this day forward: NO IDIOTS ALLOWED!