The Department of Justice announced Friday that it had settled litigation against Alabama over alleged violations of the National Voter Registration Act, also known as the Motor Voter law.
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley (R) and the Justice Department agreed to a Memorandum of Understanding outlining steps the state will take to come into compliance with the law, which requires states to give citizens seeking certain public services, including applying for driver’s licenses, the opportunity to register to vote.
Among other things, Alabama will have to integrate voter registration forms into its driver’s license applications, train public officials in voter registration protocols and set up an electronic system to process voter registrations for people seeking driver’s licenses.
“Voting is the cornerstone of our democracy,” said Vanita Gupta, the head of the DOJ’s Civil Rights Division, in a statement. “We commend the state of Alabama for working quickly and cooperatively with the department to ensure that eligible Alabama citizens can register to vote and update their registration information through motor vehicle agencies, with the convenience they deserve and the ease of access the law requires.”
The alleged NVRA violations were separate from the scrutiny the state — which has a strict photo voter ID law — received after closing 31 driver’s licenses offices, many in regions with high percentage of African-American populations.
The Department of Justice sent Alabama officials a letter in September threatening to sue the state over the NVRA violations.
Secretary of State John Merrill acknowledged last month the state was not in compliance with the law, which was passed in 1993.
“It’s like being pregnant,” Merrill told The Anniston Star. “Either you’re fully in compliance with the law or you’re not in compliance. And we’ve never been compliant.”
Please tell me Alabama agreed to pay a fine too. I mean, these boys tried to fuck with The Franchise. There should be fines.
Washington bureaucrats yet again impose their communist philosophy on the good people of Alabama. I ask you: What has the State of Alabama done to deserve this treatment? When has the State of Alabama ever done anything but protect the civil rights of each and everyone of its citizens without regard to race or creed?
OK. OK. Don’t answer that question.
And then there’s this:
As watchers of Sesame Street know all too well…one of these things is not like the other…
1993 is Alabammy’s way of working quickly so citizens can register to vote??? Un-fucking-believable.
And it won’t have near the impact as DoJ’s Civil Rights Division would like if those 31 SoS offices in predominantly black communities remain closed either…They need to protect those citizens as well and allow them to register close to home instead of being forced to travel long distances to get their licenses and registration on the record.
The DoJ will probably give in to excuse after excuse imo at the pace of transition. I didn’t see any time limit on full compliance, so what’s to stop Alabama from slow-walking this order?
This seems like pretty weak sauce to me. The voter ID laws stands, and the DMVs in largely black counties stay closed. Basically the got Alabama to agree to actually process those few black that register to vote, in a timely manner. But the fact that its still a HUGE barrier to get somewhere to actually register is still in place.
EDIT: Ok, I see this is not about that particular issue, and is instead another lawsuit concerning the fact that they weren’t complying with the NVRA. So we are still awaiting word on what the DoJ is going to do concerning the DMV problem.
Old times there are not forgotten
and really, really rotten