Alabama law blocks 1 in 13 adults from voting
Alabama law blocks 1 in 13 adults from voting
Anna Claire Vollers - October 26, 2016
Martha Shearer has been voting for years. The 53-year-old Birmingham resident works with Greater Birmingham Ministries, helping other people register to vote. Recently, she began the process of applying for a full pardon from the state's Board of Pardons and Paroles for a single drug conviction from 26 years ago. She hoped a pardon might do what two master's degrees and a solid 20-year work history had not: open doors to higher-paying jobs.
"When I went to Pardons and Paroles to apply for a pardon, they asked if I wanted to be able to vote," said Shearer.
She told them she'd already been voting. "They told me, 'Then you've been committing fraud.'"
In Alabama, unlike most states, a felony conviction can bar a person from ever voting again. It depends on which county you live in. And when you register. And who processes your voter registration. A burglary conviction might disqualify you in one county but not in another. Or it might have disqualified you last year, but you could get lucky this year. In the end, one out of every 13 adults in Alabama can't vote due to a felony conviction – about 286,000 people ............
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