Tens of thousands of newly registered felons could swing Alabama Senate election
DOTHAN, ALABAMA Today is the last day to register to vote in the state of Alabama, Pastor Kenneth Glasgow said into a microphone, his energy lighting up the radio studio in the office of a community group he runs. Those of you listening in the prison cells right now: You can vote if you dont have a murder charge or any kind of sex charge.
For 90 minutes on Monday morning, Glasgow and his co-host spoke on the air about the importance of registering before the midnight deadline. Through The Ordinary People Society, the non-profit community organization he founded in 1999 after he served more than a decade in prison on drug charges, Glasgow says he has helped hundreds of thousands of people register to vote. In 2008, he won a lawsuit allowing him to register people inside prisons, but most people inside were still disenfranchised until this year.
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 Alabamas 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.
https://thinkprogress.org/voter-registration-former-felons-alabama-election-aa3ba5ecb020/