Louisiana’s “Election Integrity Legislative Package” Risks Disenfranchising Voters with Disabilities
November 10, 2024
By: Hannah Barrios
Section 208 of the Voting Rights Act (“the VRA”) ensures that anyone who needs assistance to vote because of blindness, disability, or inability to read or write may be assisted “by a person of the voter’s choice.” After Louisiana’s recent enactment of several laws regarding absentee ballots, a disability rights group is now worried about disabled individuals’ access to absentee ballots and the potential prosecution of those who assist disabled individuals. The group is challenging the validity of the Louisiana laws, arguing they are a violation of Section 208 of the VRA.
The Laws at Issue
Four new laws affect absentee ballots in Louisiana. The state legislature passed the laws in early summer 2024, and some began to take effect on August 1, 2024. Others take effect on July 1, 2025. The first of these laws are Acts 302 and 712; both make it a crime for anyone to be the witness on an absentee ballot for more than one person who isn’t an immediate family member.
The next law is Act 317, which prohibits a person from giving an absentee ballot to more than one person who isn’t an immediate family member. The prohibition is not aimed at the actual absentee ballot itself but the form used to request an absentee ballot – even though the absentee ballot request forms are publicly available to print on the Louisiana Secretary of State website. Act 317 also contains a catch-all provision, which states, “No person shall knowingly, willfully, or intentionally facilitate the distribution and collection of absentee by mail ballot applications or absentee by mail ballots.”
Finally, Act 380 is the third law that addresses absentee ballot voting. Act 380 prohibits anyone from mailing more than one absentee ballot for a voter who isn’t an immediate family member. This new law expanded a prior law, which prohibited anyone but immediate family members from hand delivering more than one absentee ballot per election to the registrar of voters to be counted. Now, delivery by mail is also prohibited.
All of the laws were written by Republican legislators as part of the Secretary of State’s “election integrity legislative package.” The package was passed as part of an effort to “further boost [the] state’s election integrity policies and procedures.”
Disability Rights Louisiana Challenges the New Laws
Disability Rights Louisiana (“DRLA”) filed suit in the Middle District of Louisiana on July 10, 2024. In their complaint, the organization alleges the laws will disenfranchise Louisiana’s most vulnerable citizens in violation of Section 208 of the VRA. DRLA argues that the Acts “directly impact people with disabilities who vote absentee, but do not have immediate family members to help them mail their absentee ballots.” They are especially worried about caretakers, nurses, and doctors in group homes and nursing homes who want to assist their patients and residents with their absentee ballots.
DRLA argues that the laws will not accomplish the Secretary of State’s goals of preventing election fraud. Their complaint begins by stating Louisiana has only experienced three instances of election fraud since 2016 – despite being a state with more than 4.5 million citizens. Meanwhile, an estimated one in three adults in Louisiana have a disability. Disabled individuals deserve the right to be assisted by a person of their choice.
With the 2024 presidential election quickly approaching, DRLA seeks injunctive relief, declaratory relief, and remedial action for disabled voters regarding the laws that took effect before the 2024 election. In the 2020 election, nearly 15,000 disabled voters submitted absentee ballots with the assistance of others in Louisiana. Without the relief requested, DRLA believes the new laws may risk those same voters’ chance at participating in the upcoming presidential election.