Liberal groups are registering thousands of felons to vote in Alabama election
November 30, 2017
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Despite the swing in the current polling, Democrats smell blood in the water in the Alabama senate race and they’re ramping up their efforts to seize the advantage.
On Monday, a bombshell report detailed the efforts of liberal organizations to get as many felons as possible registered to vote before the deadline for Alabama’s Dec. 12. U.S. Senate special election. In a senate race this erratic, controversial, and close, tactics like this can make all the difference.
Yes, voting is a Constitutionally-protected right. That being said, rights can be legally suspended or removed if a person commits an act that society deems irreparable and puts into question their moral character.
A new Alabama law passed this spring clarified exactly which felons would or would not lose their voting rights, opening up a massive potential voting block.
Push to Get Eligible Felons Registered to Vote
Though the exact number is unknown, it is reported that tens of thousands of felons have been newly registered to vote in the upcoming Alabama special election. This is possible due to a law passed by the Alabama legislature in May and signed by the Governor called the Definition of Moral Turpitude Act.
The law, in essence, defines several dozen felonies as crimes of “moral turpitude,” which means that anyone convicted of them loses the right to vote. On the flip side, felons not convicted of those specific crimes are eligible to vote. The previous list was not clearly defined, and for generations, most Alabama felons simply believed they couldn’t vote.
Civil rights activist Pastor Kenneth Glasgow, president of Dothan’s The Ordinary People Society (TOPS) advocacy group and one of the main organizers heading up the state-wide effort to get felons registered to vote, says the push to get felons registered is adding thousands of voters:
In the last month, I think we registered at least five- to ten-thousand people all over the state. I’ve got people all over the state registering people with my TOPS branches in Tuscaloosa, Birmingham, Montgomery, Enterprise, Dothan, Abbeville, Geneva, Gordon, Bessemer, we have a lot.
Glasgow continued, “We’re trying to right a wrong by giving people their rights back, who never should have lost them in the first place.”
Last Monday, the deadline to register to vote, Glasgow informed his community on the radio:
Today is the last day to register to vote in the state of Alabama. Those of you listening in the prison cells right now: You can vote if you don’t have a murder charge or any kind of sex charge.
Moore Isn’t Happy
Some, however, are not taking too kindly to this effort to get felons to regain their voting rights. Embattled Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore tweeted yesterday:
BREAKING: Democrat operatives in Alabama are REGISTERING THOUSANDS OF FELONS all across the state in an effort to swing the US Senate election to Doug Jones! #ALSen al.com/news/index.ssf…
Felon’s Voting Rights
At the turn of the 20th century, the Alabama legislature passed a law barring anyone convicted of a crime of moral turpitude from being able to vote. This law was struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court.
In 1985, the legislature narrowed its scope to felonies of moral turpitude and reinserted it into the Alabama Constitution. The state never provided a clear definition of moral turpitude, thus allowing Alabama to be sued last year on the grounds that the law was vague and racially discriminatory.
In May, Republican Governor Kay Ivey signed a new law passed by the legislature defining 42 crimes as felonies of moral turpitude — including murder and rape. Anyone that committed a felony not included in the list instantly became eligible to vote once again.
The new law brought several organizations into Alabama, a deep-red state, to hold clinics educating felons on their eligibility to vote.
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Alabama has been deep-red for decades and this new voter registration drive coupled with a flawed Republican candidate may be just what Democrats needed to gain a foothold in the state, amid a controversial and hotly contested Senate special election.
It looks like this race will be even closer than it currently is and will probably be one for the ages. We can see the recount happening already.
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