Alabama election officials don’t have to immediately educate impacted people about a change in state voting qualifications that clarified tens of thousands of felons have the right to vote, a federal judge ruled Friday. Kay Ivey (R) signed a law defining exactly which offenses constituted a crime of moral turpitude, earning widespread praise. The plaintiffs in the case hadn’t shown they faced irreparable injury, he said, and weren’t being denied the ability to vote. Some of these voters told the court they wouldn’t have known they were now eligible to vote if lawyers hadn’t contacted them. Absent state action, the Alabama chapter of the ACLU and Legal Services Alabama are offering clinics this summer to help educate people about the changes.

Source: Huffington Post July 29, 2017 20:48 UTC