A federal judge has sided with the state of Alabama in a voting rights case. The ruling narrows the scope of a challenge to a new Alabama law criminalizing some ways of helping other people apply for an absentee ballot. Chief U.S. District Judge David Proctor ruled Wednesday that civic groups can still move toward trial on their claim that the law’s ban on gifts or payment for application assistance violates the Voting Rights Act’s assurances that blind, disabled or low-literacy voters can get help from a person of their choice. The new law makes compensating for such help a felony, punishable by up to 20 years in prison.
