Alabama lags the nation in election access, voter participation and competitive elections according to a first-ever report that examines the state’s democratic practices.

The 33-page report from the Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama notes that Alabama continues to lag far behind other states when it comes to voter participation. The report examines voter turnout during the 2022 general election, and noted how poor participation rates could be linked to a lack of early in-person voting options, and easier absentee voting requirements.

“Alabama has not adopted measures other states have to encourage citizen participation in our democratic process,” said Thomas Spencer, PARCA’s senior research associate and author of the report entitled, “How Alabama Democracy Compares.”

“The vast majority of states allow people to vote early in person or by absentee if they choose to. Ballot security is important and should be protected but making it easier to cast a ballot should also be a priority. We all know Alabama had a history of discriminatory voting restrictions. We should be a national leader in access and voter participation.”

The report offers up suggestions, such as allowing automatic voter registration which is permitted in 24 states and the District of Columbia. Early, mail-in voting is allowed in some form within 36 states, but not in Alabama, the report notes.

But politically, efforts to reduce the early in-person absentee voting obstacles listed within the report have not gone far in a Legislature that is a supermajority Republican.

Past legislation to provide mail-in voting options have stalled, while state lawmakers have preemptively banned election reform measures liked ranked choice voting (RCV) which have seen a rise in popularity elsewhere in recent years.

Related: Voter suppression or election security? Alabama lawmakers squabble over election reforms

Reaction

Republican Alabama Secretary of State Wes Allen touted the state’s efforts in “ensuring its elections are the fairest and most secure in the country.” He also denounced some of the reform measures listed within the PARCA report, while touting some recent legislation that was signed into law.

Among the examples was a new law that criminalizes payment for collecting absentee ballot application, often referred to as “ballot harvesting.”

The measure was adopted by GOP lawmakers as an election integrity measure despite repeated insistence from Democrats that there was no proof anything illegal was occurring that warranted a new state law. They also claimed that Republican state lawmakers were adopting measures as a direct response to former President Donald Trump’s baseless claims of voter fraud in the 2020 election.

“From Alabama’s bans on absentee ballot harvesting and ranked choice voting to codifying the use of paper ballots in every Alabama election, Alabama is a national leader in election integrity,” Allen said in a statement to AL.com. “I believe in election day, not election month. Unsolicited mass-mail, no-excuse absentee voting, automatic voter registration, and same day voter registration undermine the fundamental principles of election security and have no place in Alabama elections.”

State Rep. Adline Clark, D-Mobile, who has led legislative efforts before to push for election reform and ease access to early voting, said the vision of the House Democratic Caucus continues to be “increasing voter participation” by implementing mail-in voting, guaranteed absentee voting, and automatic voter registration upon the age of 18.

Clarke sponsored legislation this session that would allow disabled voters, including voters who are bedbound, to designate someone to mail or hand-deliver their absentee ballot application and ballot to an absentee election manager’s office.

As the PARCA report suggests, Alabama is 1 of only 6 states that does not automatically allow voters 65 or older to request an absentee ballot.

“Regardless of political affiliation, we all benefit when more people vote,” Clarke said. “We must support efforts to educate voters and to ensure that the elderly, disabled, and infirm can also exercise their right to vote without undue obstacles or constraint. Also, we must expedite the restoration of voting rights to those who have paid their debt to society by removing fee, fines, or other obstacles as a condition to the restoration of their sacred right to vote.”

Spencer said the analysis’ timing is notable, given the election year and “a wider discussion of democracy and participation” that is ongoing nationally.

It’s release also comes less than two years after voters, in 2022, adopted changes to the State Constitution to scrub racist language from the 1901 document.

But the 2022 revisions, PARCA points out, includes language that is “hesitant to embrace ‘free and equal’ voting rights like most U.S. state constitutions do.” It still describes voting as a “privilege” rather than a right, PARCA notes.

Highlights

The report’s analysis on the state of Alabama’s democracy highlights the following statistics:

• Alabama’s voter participation in the 2022 general election was 37%, which put it at No. 46 in percentage of the voting-eligible population to cast a ballot. Since 2012, Alabama consistently ranks in the bottom 15 states for voter participation.
• A PARCA opinion poll revealed that 60% believe that state officials in Montgomery do not care “what people like me think.” That number has been above 50% since the survey began in 2007.
• Alabama is one of four states that does not allow early in-person voting. A U.S. Census survey in 2022 showed that 47.1% of the nation voted early by mail or in person in 2022. Alabama had the lowest rate in the nation of 3.6% of those voting early.
• Alabama, like six other Southern states, requires not only a voters’ signature but also a signature of two witnesses or a signature of a notary public in order to vote absentee. It is one of 14 states requiring excuses to vote absentee.
• Alabama’s electoral competitiveness is low due to in part to partisan redistricting and straight-ticket voting. The state is one of only seven states with straight-ticket voting, and 67% of ballots in 2022 were straight-ticket. PARCA noted that since 1994, 15 states with straight-ticket voting – where a voter can simply select a political party’s choices without further examining the ballot – voted to eliminate it.
• Alabama’s overall voter registration is lower than the national average – 70% to 67%. In 2022, white and Hispanic voter participation rates were 10 percentage points lower than the U.S. average in those groups. Black voter participation was on par with the national average.
• Alabama lacks “direct democracy mechanisms like initiatives and referendums, limiting citizen involvement in legislative changes.” The state does not allow for a recall – the ability to petition for a change of leadership — while 19 others do. Another 26 states have voter initiatives or referendums, whereas Alabama’s Legislature maintains a “gatekeeper authority” on what questions appear on the ballot. In recent years, initiatives elsewhere have led to the legalization of recreational marijuana, and protected abortion access.
• In 15 states, lawmakers have granted politically-appointed or independent commissions the primary responsibility for drawing legislative district lines rather leaving it to state legislatures. Alabama, like 25 other states, draws the maps and passes them on a partly or wholly party-line basis. The most recent attempt has attracted the federal courts, who drew Alabama’s most recent congressional map as a result of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Milligan v. Allen last year. That ruling determined that Republican-drawn maps likely violated the Voting Rights Act.