On Thursday, Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill issued a press release announcing new rules that will allow permanently disabled voters to apply for a disabled voter absentee ballot, which will have to be signed and notarized by the voter’s primary care physician to be accepted.

The new rule is the result of legislation pushed this year by Alabama Sen. Vivian Figures, D-Mobile, and Alabama Rep. Victor Gaston, R-Mobile, and Merrill celebrated the duo’s “dedication in making this possible” in his press release heralding the new rule.

Once their signed and notarized application is returned and it can be verified that the voter suffers from a disability that prevents them from making it to the polls, disabled voters will be placed on a permanent absentee and will automatically receive a ballot before each election within the calendar year.

The application is valid throughout the end of the calendar year in which it was filed – if an election continues into the following year, the application is valid for the entire election cycle.

“We want all eligible Alabamians to be able to participate in the electoral process without impediments,” Merrill said in the release. “We must do everything we can to remove these boundaries in order to make voting as easy as possible.”

Merrill noted that a valid form of identification must be provided at the time that a voter applies for an absentee ballot.

Alabama Rep. Prince Chestnut, D-Selma, took seriously Merrill’s assertion that “boundaries” must be removed to “make voting as easy as possible” by proposing a “no-excuse” absentee ballot bill, which would have allowed Alabama voters to apply for an absentee ballot without being required to submit reasons why such a ballot was needed – his legislation stalled during this year’s legislative session.

Despite that, Chestnut supports the new rule, noting that he supported and voted in favor of the legislation when it came before the House this year.

“I agree with Secretary Merrill that impediments and boundaries to voting should be removed,” Chestnut said. “That’s why I have brought a ‘no-excuse’ absentee bill for Alabamians, instead of a series of piecemeal bills.”

Chestnut previously took exception with the law requiring that a valid form of identification be presented when applying for an absentee ballot – not because he opposes people proving that they are who they say they are, but because he questioned whether such a rule was necessary in light of minimal voter fraud in the state.

“I think we all know what the intent behind these types of laws,” Chestnut said previously. “The incremental steps of erecting barriers to voting is something that is concerning and obliges all who love democracy to be watchful.”

While he supports the latest rule, which would theoretically make it easier for at least a subsection of Alabama voters to submit ballots, Chestnut believes unified action needs to be taken to ensure that all Alabamians have equal access to the ballot box.

“If we remove partisanship from the table, we can actually accomplish the objective of removing impediments and barriers to voting,” Chestnut said.