ThinkProgress: Newly Registered Voters Excited for Alabama Senate Election
In May, Gov. Kay Ivey (R) signed into law a bill, the Definition of Moral Turpitude Act, championed by Glasgow and other voting advocates. Under Alabama’s 1901 constitution, anyone convicted of a “crime of moral turpitude” was prohibited from voting, but the state never defined what moral turpitude was. For decades, county registrars would all use different criteria and provide voters with conflicting information. The new law, however, clarifies the crimes that permanently disenfranchise a former felon, opening the doors for tens of thousands of people with drug charges and other lower level felonies to register to vote.
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Danielle Lang, the deputy director of voting rights for the organization, said that while the state won’t provide resources to inform voters, it’s crucial that people like Glasgow fill in.
“The most important thing that anybody can do right now is to use their voice to try to reach as many people as possible,” she said. “The state’s not going to do it between now and December 12th.”
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“For people who are able to register in this election, I think a lot of them will probably feel like their vote really matters because it is closely contested,” Lang said. “They can feel like in an election where they are first able to participate, it is one of consequence.”