MONTGOMERY, Ala. – A civil rights group on Wednesday filed a federal lawsuit challenging Alabama’s photo voter ID law as an infringement on voting rights and an attempt to suppress the influence of black and Hispanic voters.
The Greater Birmingham Ministries and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People filed the suit Wednesday in Birmingham federal court. Alabama’s law requires voters to show a valid state-issued photo identification at the polls in order to vote. The law went into effect in the 2014 elections.
“It is appalling that, 60 years after Rosa Parks’ courageous protest in Montgomery and 50 years after voting rights activists marched in Selma, the Alabama Legislature continues to pass laws that are designed to deprive people of color of their basic civil rights,” said Sherrilyn Ifill, president and director-counsel of NAACP Legal Defense Fund.
The lawsuit is the latest attempt to roll back voter ID requirements implemented in Republican-controlled states. The U.S. Justice Department challenged photo identification requirements in North Carolina and Texas, and a federal appeals court in August found the Texas law to be discriminatory.
States that have implemented the requirements say the measures are needed to curb voter fraud. Opponents, often Democrats, say the requirement presents a barrier to the ballot box for poor, minority and elderly voters.
The lawsuit contends that Alabama politicians who created and backed the law knew that black and Latino voters “disproportionately lack the required photo ID.”
Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley said his office will review the lawsuit.
“Voting rights are important to every citizen, and it is imperative that every Alabamian who is eligible to vote have the ability to vote,” Bentley said in a statement. “A photo ID protects the process of voting and ensures fair elections are held.”
