Connect with us

Alabama

Alabama Republicans support the voter eligibility bill on conspiratorial grounds

Published

on

Alabama Republicans support the voter eligibility bill on conspiratorial grounds


On Wednesday, the House of Representatives passed the SAVE Act in a 221-198 vote. Short for the Safeguard American Voter Eligibility Act, the SAVE Act would require states to verify proof of citizenship when people register to vote.

The bill is the latest legislative effort inspired by conservative conspiracy theories about Democrats stealing elections by letting illegal immigrants vote. When asked for examples in May, Speaker of the House Mike Johnson just said that Americans “know, intuitively, that a lot of illegals are voting in federal elections” and that it was not “something that is easily provable.”

The dearth of hard evidence has not prevented many Alabama politicians from arguing that more restrictions on noncitizens voting are needed to stop Democrats from stealing elections. Alabama Rep. Barry Moore claimed in one statement that “Democrats want non-citizens to vote because they know most Americans don’t support their radical agenda.”

The Congressman from Alabama’s 5th District, Dale Strong, said “Democrats have made clear that they support foreign nationals interfering in U.S. elections” by opposing the SAVE Act.

Advertisement

And Alabama Senator Tommy Tuberville tweeted that “Corrupt Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have let MILLIONS of illegals into this country, and now they want them to vote in our elections.”

However, as Democrats in Congress, President Biden, and voting rights organizations have all publicized, voting in federal elections as a noncitizen is already explicitly illegal. While some municipalities have passed laws to let Green Card holders vote in local elections, no prominent Democratic politicians have pushed to let noncitizens vote in federal elections.

Plus, the League of Women Voters points out that “voters in every state are already required to affirm or verify their citizenship status when registering to vote.” Democrats have not pushed to remove this requirement either.

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Noncitizens attempting to register to vote is also incredibly rare, and noncitizens actually voting even rarer. A 2017 report from the Brennan Center for Justice found “only an estimated 30 incidents of suspected noncitizen voting” [emphasis added] out of over 20 million votes cast in the jurisdictions they researched. A 2022 audit in Georgia found that just 1,634 noncitizens attempted to register in 25 years: Not one even successfully registered.

Rather than preventing noncitizens from voting, the primary effect of the SAVE Act, if passed by the Senate and signed into law, would be requiring citizens to actively prove that they are a U.S. citizen in addition to affirming it.

Advertisement

Specifically, prospective voters would need to provide:

  • REAL ID compliant identification that “indicates the applicant is a citizen”
  • A US passport
  • A military ID with a “record of service showing that the applicant’s place of birth was in the United States”
  • Or another photo ID which either shows a place of birth in the United States or is presented along with a birth certificate, adoption records, or other proof of citizenship

As driver licenses (by far the most common form of REAL ID compliant identification) don’t show citizenship status in most states, effectively the bill would require either a passport or both an ID and other proof of citizenship. According to the U.S. State Department, less than half of all Americans have a valid passport.

Alabama’s only Democratic member of Congress, Terri Sewell, called the SAVE ACT “a dangerous, anti-democratic bill that would do nothing to protect our elections” on the House floor.

She pointed to the requirements to regularly remove noncitizens from voting rolls and said they would also “purge thousands of eligible voters from the rolls including Americans who recently got married and changed their last names and those with military and tribal IDs.”

“With state lawmakers working overtime to erect barriers to the ballot box, the need for federal voting rights protections is just as urgent today as it was 60 years ago,” Sewell said. “After all, it is up to the voters to choose our elected leaders, not the other way around.”

Advertisement. Scroll to continue reading.

Sewell again called for Congress to consider and pass the John R. Lewis Voting Rights Advancement Act. Named after the now deceased civil rights hero and Congressman, the bill would make it harder to change election law in potentially discriminatory ways.

Advertisement

The campaign against supposed noncitizen voting in recent months is reminiscent of Trump’s attacks on voting-by-mail in the lead-up to the 2020 election. In both cases, Republicans called the integrity of American elections into doubt based on minimal hard evidence and simultaneously complained that Americans had “lost trust in our election process,” as Alabama Rep. Gary Palmer has said.

It seems possible that, like absentee voting in 2020, noncitizen voting could provide the justification for Trump to challenge the results of the presidential election if he loses this November.



Source link

Alabama

How to watch Tennessee Volunteers: Live stream info, TV channel, game time | Feb. 28

Published

on

How to watch Tennessee Volunteers: Live stream info, TV channel, game time | Feb. 28


Labaron Philon’s No. 18 Alabama Crimson Tide (21-7, 11-4 SEC) hit the road to match up with Ja’Kobi Gillespie and the No. 22 Tennessee Volunteers (20-8, 10-5 SEC) at Thompson-Boling Arena on Saturday, Feb. 28. The game starts at 6 p.m. ET.

We have more details below, including how to watch this matchup on ESPN.

Prepare for this matchup with everything you need to know ahead of Saturday’s college hoops action.

Tennessee vs. Alabama: How to watch on TV or live stream

  • Game day: Saturday, February 28, 2026
  • Game time: 6 p.m. ET
  • Location: Knoxville, Tennessee
  • Arena: Thompson-Boling Arena
  • TV Channel: ESPN
  • Live stream: Fubo – Watch NOW (Regional restrictions may apply)

Check out: USA TODAY Sports Coaches Poll

Watch college basketball on Fubo!

Advertisement

Tennessee vs. Alabama stats and trends

  • Tennessee ranks 78th in the nation with 80.5 points per game so far this year. At the other end, it ranks 62nd with 69.1 points allowed per contest.
  • The Volunteers are thriving when it comes to rebounding, as they rank third-best in college basketball in boards (39.9 per game) and second-best in rebounds allowed (25.9 per contest).
  • So far this season, Tennessee ranks 30th in college basketball in assists, averaging 17.1 per game.
  • With 11.8 turnovers per game, the Volunteers are 257th in the country. They force 10.7 turnovers per contest, which ranks 224th in college basketball.
  • This season, Tennessee is making 6.9 threes per game (271st-ranked in college basketball) and is shooting 34.7% (139th-ranked) from three-point land.
  • With a 30.2% three-point percentage allowed this season, the Volunteers are 22nd-best in the country. They rank 182nd in college basketball by giving up 7.8 three-pointers per contest.
  • Tennessee has taken 67.3% two-pointers and 32.7% three-pointers this year. Of the team’s buckets, 75.8% are two-pointers and 24.2% are three-pointers.

Tennessee vs. Alabama Odds and Spread

  • Spread Favorite: Volunteers (-4.5)
  • Moneyline: Tennessee (-222), Alabama (+179)
  • Total: 164.5 points

NCAA Basketball odds courtesy of BetMGM Sportsbook. Odds updated Saturday at 4:11 a.m. ET. For a full list of sports betting odds, access USA TODAY Sports Betting Scores Odds Hub.

Watch college basketball on Fubo!

Follow the latest college sports coverage at College Sports Wire.



Source link

Continue Reading

Alabama

Alabama ‘Fully Aware’ of Losing Streak to Tennessee Ahead of Road Rematch

Published

on

Alabama ‘Fully Aware’ of Losing Streak to Tennessee Ahead of Road Rematch


TUSCALOOSA, Ala. — Losing to a rival almost always hurts more than falling to another opponent during the regular season. Years of hatred, unforgettable moments and tradition boiled up into one game, and the delivery is nowhere to be found for one team.

No. 17 Alabama has won seven straight games and is eyeing an eighth on Saturday on the road against No. 22 Tennessee. This is the second time that Crimson Tide will face the Volunteers, as Alabama lost in Tuscaloosa in January.

The loss a month ago to head coach Rick Barnes and company brought UA’s losing streak against Tennessee to five games. It’s the first time that the Tide has dropped this many games to the Vols since 1968-72 — a streak that came two years before Alabama head coach Nate Oats was born (Oct. 13, 1974). It’s why Oats is not treating Tennessee as a faceless opponent or like any other team the Tide has faced.

Advertisement

“Every year we’ve been here they’ve caused us issues,” Oats said during Friday’s press conference. “Our players, are fully aware that we’ve lost five in a row. They’re fully aware of what happened out there last year. I’ve taken ownership for my share of what happened up there last year.

Advertisement

“We’re fully aware that they beat us at home. We haven’t lost very many home games in conference, period, really since we’ve been here, and they handed us one this year.”

After falling to Florida on Feb. 1, Alabama moved down to the ninth spot in the conference standings, and the college basketball world started to question whether or not the Crimson Tide would be a threat in the postseason.

But a switch flipped after that loss, and the current winning streak has Alabama tied for the No. 2 spot in the SEC standings. Everything seems to be trending in the Tide’s direction, as there are only three games remaining on the schedule.

Oats is in his sixth year as Alabama’s head coach. Following the retirement of former Auburn head coach Bruce Pearl during the offseason, Oats became the second-longest tenured coach for one team in the conference. The coach in front of him: Tennessee’s Rick Barnes, who has held his position since the 2015-16 season.

Advertisement

Both Alabama and Tennessee have finished conference play in the top-4 of the standings since the 2022-23 season. The Crimson Tide was the regular-season and SEC Tournament champions in both the 2020-21 and 2022-23 seasons, while the Vols won the 2022 SEC Tournament and were the conference’s regular-season champions in 2023-24.

Advertisement

“So our guys know, but at the same time, we’ve got a lot of respect for how they play and what they do. We’ve got to come in with a healthy amount of respect for them, but we got to try to win this game.

“There’s a lot riding on this game. What happens in Arkansas-Florida, you’re either going to be all alone in second place if we could get a win, or you’re going to be one game out first. If you take a loss, now you’re in danger of losing a top-4 seed. They’ll be tied with us if we take a loss.”

“So there’s a lot riding on the SEC standings in this game here. They know that. They know what our struggles against Tennessee have Been as well.”

Subscribe to BamaCentral’s Free Newsletter



Source link

Advertisement
Continue Reading

Alabama

Selmont seeks incorporation to become independent Alabama city

Published

on

Selmont seeks incorporation to become independent Alabama city


SELMONT, Ala. (WSFA) – An unincorporated community in Dallas County is seeking to establish itself as an independent city, hoping to gain control over local government services and community priorities that have long been managed at the county level.

Selmont, located across the Edmund Pettus Bridge from Selma, is home to approximately 2,700 registered voters and carries a significant place in civil rights history.

The community was the site of a pivotal moment during the Bloody Sunday march in 1965, when roughly 600 civil rights marchers were tear-gassed by Alabama state troopers, including 13-year-old Mae Richmond.

“People ask us ‘Were we afraid?’ No. We were not afraid. We were not afraid, first of all, even as a 13-year-old child, we knew that we were doing what God was permitting us to do,” Richmond, a 60-plus year resident of Selmont, said of the historic event.

Advertisement

As an unincorporated community, Selmont lacks its own municipal government. Residents must contact the Dallas County Commissioner for public works services. It’s a situation that community leaders say limits responsiveness to local needs.

Erice Williams, a community activist leading the incorporation effort, said the change would fundamentally alter how the community operates.

“It would give us decision power and allow us to get funding that we can allocate to our own community that we can make our own priorities be clear and resolved at the same time,” Williams said.

Williams also highlighted the strain on current county services. “Connel Towns (county commissioner) is the only person we have to call, and the resources and time that he would have to serve our community is very limited,” he said.

Operation Selmont, the group spearheading the incorporation effort, is currently gathering signatures on a petition to present to the local probate judge. The organization needs approximately 500 signatures to move forward with the incorporation process and has already collected 40 percent of its goal.

Advertisement

The next meeting for Operation Selmont is scheduled for March 6 at 6 p.m.

For longtime residents like Richmond, incorporation represents an opportunity to ensure Selmont’s future and maintain its identity for generations to come.

“That we will be able to teach and train our children to give them the strength that our foreparents had that they will be able to stand up for justice and for equality,” Richmond said of her hopes for the community’s future.

Not reading this story on the WSFA News App? Get news alerts FASTER and FREE in the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store!

Advertisement



Source link

Continue Reading

Trending