New Initiative Aims to Help Thousands of Alabama Felons Register to Vote

Two legal advocacy groups have jointly launched a new initiative aimed at helping thousands of Alabama felons regain their right to vote.

The Campaign Legal Center and Southern Poverty Law Center announced Thursday that the campaign, dubbed the Alabama Voting Rights Project, "will take a simple message across the state: A felony conviction does not permanently take away a person's right to vote," according to a joint statement by the two groups.

The campaign's workers will "organize and train local leaders in communities across the state, participate in community events and forums, and go door to door" to inform formerly incarcerated people that they may have the right to vote, despite the fact that they have felony convictions.

"The Alabama Voting Rights Project is going to organize door to door, community by community in every region of Alabama to reach tens of thousands of Alabamians affected by recent changes in the law," said Blair Bowie, Alabama voting rights campaign manager and Skadden Fellow at the CLC.

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