Absentee voting turnout for Mobile’s upcoming municipal election is running behind the pace set during the city’s last municipal election in 2017, even as the region continues to grapple with a surge in COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations.
Mobile City Clerk Lisa Carroll-Lambert said her office had expected a heavier response given the ongoing pandemic, but the numbers have told a different story. “In comparison, it’s kind of slow,” she said. “I thought because of COVID, it would be a lot heavier.”
One factor behind the softer turnout may be that, unlike during the 2020 presidential election, Alabama voters cannot cite COVID-19 concerns as a valid excuse to cast an absentee ballot this time around. Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill has not extended that allowance for the municipal race. The Mobile City Council formally requested that Merrill reconsider, but the request was denied within a day, according to Carroll-Lambert.
The deadline to submit mail-in absentee ballots passed on Tuesday, Aug. 17, while the window for in-person absentee voting was set to close Thursday, Aug. 19. In-person absentee voting has been available on the first floor of Government Plaza.
As of Monday, Aug. 16, Carroll-Lambert’s office reported receiving more than 1,000 absentee ballots, with 592 submitted by mail and 436 cast in person. Roughly 2,000 absentee applications had been picked up by prospective voters, putting the overall response rate at about 50 percent.
Carroll-Lambert said that during council discussions over whether to press the Secretary of State’s office for a COVID-19 exception, she informed members that many voters had already been writing COVID-19 on their applications as a reason for requesting an absentee ballot, even though fear of the virus alone does not qualify as an approved excuse under state law. An underlying medical condition or infirmity, however, can qualify. When an application lists COVID-19 without meeting that threshold, Carroll-Lambert said her office returns it along with a letter explaining the requirements.
The debate over absentee ballot access has unfolded against the backdrop of a worsening public health picture in Mobile County. Since Aug. 9, the county has reported 500 or more new COVID-19 cases on all but one day, according to the Mobile County Health Department, pushing the county’s case count for August past 7,100 — already surpassing the total recorded for all of July. Local hospitals reported more than 400 COVID-19 patients last week, and Infirmary Health, which operates Mobile Infirmary, Thomas Hospital and North Baldwin Infirmary, led the state in the number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients.
The continued climb in case numbers led Gov. Kay Ivey to declare a new virus-related state of emergency on Friday, Aug. 13. The declaration is intended to ease the process for hospitals to bring in out-of-state nursing staff and to expand capacity without first securing approval from a certificate-of-need board.
The dispute over ballot access has also taken on a political dimension. Ben Harris, chairman of the Mobile County Democratic Executive Committee, argued that no-excuse absentee voting should be permitted statewide. “With COVID-19 rates where they are, people should be able to vote and feel safe,” Harris said, adding that he also supports expanding early voting options in Alabama.
Tricia Strange, chairwoman of the Mobile County Republican Party, offered a different view, saying that with vaccines widely available and polling places enforcing mask use and social distancing, voting in person during the pandemic should not pose a significant obstacle for residents.
The municipal election will determine Mobile’s next mayor and City Council, with turnout trends in the final days before Election Day expected to shape both in-person and absentee participation.