Alabama GOP: Judge's Ruling on Registering Felons is Attempt to Bolster Democrat Voting Rolls

The Alabama Republican Party knows a good issue when it sees it.

Birmingham – The Alabama Republican Party on Thursday said a liberal ruling by Jefferson County Circuit Judge Robert Vance, Jr., who was appointed to office by Don Siegelman, may be an attempt to help Democrats at the ballot box in the fall.

Vance’s controversial ruling ordered registrars to begin allowing felons across the state to register to vote, including those currently incarcerated in Alabama prisons. The state’s chief elections official told the Birmingham News that the ruling might require voting stations to be placed in Alabama prisons.

The head of the Alabama Republican Party responded strongly to the ruling.

“The Alabama Republican Party has consistently opposed the automatic restoration of voting rights for ex-felons, and we certainly don’t believe incarcerated felons should help decide the future of our state,” GOP chair Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh said. “With a tap of his gavel, Don Siegelman’s hand-picked judge may have given convicted drug dealers, and other incarcerated felons the same right to vote that honest and upstanding citizens enjoy.”

Cavanaugh referenced both the timing and broad scope of the ruling and questioned if it was intended to assist Lucy Baxley and other Democrats in the November election.

“The plaintiffs who brought the suit were ex-felons who had already served their time, yet the judge’s ruling extended voting rights to all felons, including those currently serving time in Alabama prisons,” Cavanaugh said. “The scope of the ruling and the fact that it comes just before the general election makes us wonder if partisan politics are at play.”

The party chair predicted that public reaction to the ruling, if Justice Department approval is granted, could create a backlash against the Alabama Democrat Party, especially since the judge is a long-time Democrat activist appointed by a liberal governor of the same party.

“If the public sees voting machines being rolled behind the walls of Alabama’s prisons, the Democrats will see some serious repercussions at the ballot box,” Cavanaugh said. “The state’s voter identification law was not meant to include numbers on a prison jumpsuit.”