A bill that would make it a crime to assist people with an absentee ballot application or absentee ballot, with exceptions for family members and others, won approval in a Senate committee after blind voters and officials with the League of Women Voters of Alabama said it would leave many of elderly and homebound citizens without the help they need to vote.

The bill, HB209 by Rep. Jamie Kiel, R- Russellville, was approved by the State Governmental Affairs Committee on a 5-2 vote, with Republicans voting yes and Democrats voting no. Earlier this month, the Republican majority in the House of Representatives passed the bill over opposition from Democrats.

GOP supporters of the bill called it a safeguard against voter fraud. Democrats and civic organizations say it would criminalize the work of volunteers, churches, and others who help elderly and disabled voters and work to encourage voter participation.

“If passed, Alabama would make felons of law-abiding people who are volunteering to help others be prepared to vote,” Kathy Jones, president of the League of Women Voters of Alabama, told the committee at a public hearing that drew an audience that filled the room. “In their churches, church congregations, residential facilities, senior centers, colleges, festivals, local farmers markets, barbershops, libraries, coffee shops — voter drives happen everywhere.”

Percy Garrett of the National Federation of the Blind, League of Women’s Voters, Lions Club International and Blinded Veterans Association, urged Kiel to withdraw his bill.

“Seniors, the disabled, and people who are just old and vote for you, we trust you to lead us and to guide us,” Garrett told the committee. “We pray for you to do the right thing for us. To devise a bill that will criminalize the people who vote for you is satanic.

“We want to be able to be free to vote and not be fearful of causing damage to someone who helps us,” Garrett said.

Keil said absentee voting is more susceptible to fraud than election day, in-person voting.

“The purpose of the bill is very simple,” Kiel said. “It’s to make sure that our balloting process, the election process in Alabama, is as secure as possible. Most of the cases where there is voter fraud across the country are in early voting. The voting day is very secure. Most of the time when there is fraud that happens, it happens early.”

Section 1 of the bill would make it a crime for a person to order, request, collect, prefill, obtain, or deliver an absentee ballot application or absentee ballot for another voter. Before today, the bill also said it was a violation to distribute absentee ballot applications, which can be downloaded and printed from the secretary of state’s website. The committee approved an amendment to remove distribution as a violation and to change the punishment level in Section 1 of the bill from a felony to a misdemeanor. Kiel supported the amendment.

Exceptions to the prohibitions would apply to family members, residents of the same household, employees of the secretary of state and probate judge, a county or city absentee election manager, and a guardian, conservator or another person appointed by the probate court.

A person who provided assistance to a voter who is blind, disabled, or unable to read or write would have an affirmative defense if the voter asked them for that help. Kiel said the bill would leave plenty of options for those who need help with an absentee ballot application or ballot.

“It could be a mother, father, son, daughter, cousin, aunt, uncle, nephew, niece,” Kiel said. “Any of those folks related to them, they could help them. Not only that, but they could have the probate judge in their county, or someone from their probate judge’s office to help them. The circuit court clerk could help them. If the circuit court clerk is not the election manager, the election manager in the city or county could help them. There’s multiple ways to get assistance in the absentee ballot process.”

Section 3 of the bill applies to receiving or giving a payment for help with an absentee ballot or application. Violations would be a felony.

Sen. Merika Coleman, D-Pleasant Grove, said she served on an election reform task force that did not find any problems with widespread voter fraud in Alabama. The secretary of state’s office has called Alabama’s elections fair and accurate.

Robin Buckelew of the League of Women Voters questioned the need for the bill and the consequences that will result.

“It affects elderly, homebound citizens and the immunocompromised who are afraid to venture out,” Buckelew said. “It affects those who have no transportation or computer printers. It affects those who are a little confused about affidavit envelopes and how to fill them out. It affects your mother, or your aunt who lives alone across the state. It makes retirement home residents into felons, or it disenfranchises them. Many people do not have close relatives living nearby. What about the prospective helpers? Who are they? They are neighbors. They’re home care nurses. They’re church members visiting homebound. They are meals on wheels delivery volunteers.”

Asked the purpose of making certain voter assistance activities a crime, Kiel said the goal is to reduce the likelihood of undue influence on voters.

“We want to make sure there’s no opportunity for criminal behavior to happen or fraudulent behavior to happen,” Kiel said. “So what we don’t want is someone to be unduly influenced while either filling out their application or when they take the ballot, we don’t want the person to be unduly influenced. And the people we listed are people that should be trusted. They’re family members, or somebody that lives with them. Or it’s back to the government officials that are elected and are accountable to the people.”

Today’s committee approval puts the bill in line for a vote by the Senate.