Judge tosses out challenge to Alabama voter ID law
A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit challenging Alabama's requirement to show photo identification at the polls.
U.S. District Judge L. Scott Coogler on Wednesday ruled the provision does not violate the Voting Rights Act. Alabama in 2014 began requiring voters to show government-issued photo identification at the polls.
Greater Birmingham Ministries and the NAACP filed the lawsuit in December, challenging the law as an infringement on voting rights. The lawsuit contends Alabama politicians knew that black and Latino voters "disproportionately lack the required photo ID."
Part of Coogler's court order declared that a "person who does not have a photo ID today is not prevented from voting if he or she can easily get one, and it is so easy to get a photo ID in Alabama, no one is prevented from voting."
In a statement, Alabama Attorney General, Steve Marshall, called Alabama's voter ID law, "one of the broadest in the nation."
"Today's decision to dismiss the lawsuit is without a doubt the right decision," Marshall said. "Alabama's voter identification law is one of the broadest in the nation with procedures in place to allow anyone who does not have a photo ID to obtain one. The court order makes this point exceedingly clear."
The state does offer free voter ID cards to residents who request them.
It's unclear if the NAACP and Greater Birmingham Ministries will take any further legal action.
Alabama voters were a focus of the nation in December, when they chose Democrat Doug Jones over Republican Roy Moore. Exit polls show women and black voters helped propel Jones to victory. He was sworn into the Senate earlier this month.
