Democrats want to ditch Alabama's new crossover voting law

[TexasTowelie]

Some Democratic lawmakers want to repeal Alabama's new crossover voting law, saying it created rather than solved a problem and its threat of felony-level penalties will discourage voter participation.

"The right to vote is just so precious," Sen. Hank Sanders of Selma said. "And we ought not to be doing things to limit it. And we certainly ought not to be doing things to end up trying to put people in jail."

The law was in force for the first time for the Sept. 26 Republican runoff between Roy Moore and Sen. Luther Strange in the special election for the U.S. Senate.

The law prohibits voters who participate in one party's primary from crossing over and voting in the other party's runoff. So, voters in the Aug. 15 Democratic primary could not vote in the Republican runoff.

Read more: http://www.al.com/news/index.ssf/2017/10/democrats_want_to_ditch_alabam.html

[yallerdawg]

1. 674 illegal votes?

It appears the list will change significantly. Jefferson County Probate Judge Alan King said most of the county's 380 voters on the list did not vote in the runoff. Instead, a chief inspector at one precinct mistakenly crossed off the names of Democratic primary voters in advance to make sure they wouldn't be allowed to vote that day. That made it appear as if they had voted, King said.

Coincidentally, Jefferson County votes Democratic, of course. The "list" contained very few Republican-leaning counties, and then only one case reported (probably a D).

[yallerdawg]

2. Update!

Probate judge says there were 'zero' crossover votes in Jefferson County

In an email today to Secretary of State John Merrill and other officials, King said an investigation by Board of Registrars Chairman Barry Stephenson determined all 380 were attributed to mistakes by poll workers and others.

"That's outstanding news," Merrill said of King's report. "What it does for us is indicates that the process worked."

"Our goal is to get to zero," Merrill said. "But if we have one, we're going to pursue that one."