ATLANTA (CN) — An attorney for the Libertarian Party of Alabama asked an 11th Circuit panel Tuesday to overturn a federal judge’s order rejecting the party’s challenge to a law which allows some political parties to get a free copy of the state voter registration list while others are charged a fee.
A free electronic copy of Alabama’s voter registration list is provided to every political party that satisfies the ballot access requirements for an election. The list contains information for every legally registered voter in the state, including their name, address and voting history.
Parties can meet the access requirement either by achieving at least 20% of the entire vote cast for a state officer in the prior general election or by filing a petition with signatures of at least 3% of qualified voters who cast a ballot in the last gubernatorial election.
The political parties that do not qualify for a free copy of the list are charged one cent per voter record.
An attorney for the Libertarian Party of Alabama told a three-judge panel of the Atlanta-based appeals court Tuesday that a copy of the complete statewide list would cost nearly $36,000.
The party claims the law violates its 14th Amendment equal protection rights and First Amendment free speech rights.
“The issue in the case is whether it passes constitutional muster for the state to provide its taxpayer-funded, computerized, mandatory statewide voter registration list free of charge to major political parties while charging an exorbitant fee to minor political parties,” Montgomery attorney David Schoen argued on behalf of the party.
Schoen claimed that the “cumulative effect” of the restriction is harmful to minority parties and unfairly gatekeeps access to an essential tool for voter outreach.
A federal judge in Montgomery rejected the party’s arguments last year, ruling that the law “rationally serves important state interests” like limiting demands on election officials, guarding against fraud, and maintaining political stability by only turning over propriety information to groups with support in the electorate.
An attorney representing Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill asked the panel to uphold the ruling and argued that the burden of the ballot access rule is not severe.
Alabama Deputy Solicitor General Barrett Bowdre mentioned the Libertarian Party’s achievement of statewide ballot access in 2000 as evidence that the requirement does not hinder minor party candidates.
U.S. Circuit Judge Robert Luck, a Donald Trump appointee, appeared to agree with Bowdre’s arguments. He pointed out that the Alabama Libertarian Party and “lots of other third parties or minor parties” have gotten on the ballot at the local and state level over the last two decades.
“Isn’t it true… that the record is replete with examples of that such that [the rule] can’t be said to be insurmountable?” Luck asked.
Bowdre agreed but added that the issue is essentially moot because the party has not made any real effort recently to meet the ballot access requirement.
“The [Libertarian Party of Alabama] has not tried to run statewide candidates in recent elections. In 2018, four candidates ran under the LPA banner and they actually approached LPA to run rather than vice versa. In 2020, they did not even try to gain statewide ballot access,” Bowdre told the panel. “Unlike the political parties [it] compares itself to, the LPA has simply abandoned the field.”
Bowdre also defended the fees, explaining that officials spend approximately an hour compiling the list for parties that request a copy.
“The state has an interest in providing a subsidy to those parties [that meet the requirement] but if you open up the list to any self-identified political party no matter how small… then that absolutely increases the burden on the secretary of state’s office for pulling the list each time,” he told the panel.
But Schoen characterized the process as a simple matter of pushing a button to send an email.
“There is no administrative burden and any administrative burden would be outweighed by the fundamental constitutional right at issue,” Schoen said. “As easy as it is to give it, everyone who wants a free list should get it.”
Luck was joined on the panel by U.S. Circuit Judges Andrew Brasher, another Trump appointee, and Jill Pryor, a Barack Obama appointee. The judges did not indicate when they would issue a ruling.
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