The state of Alabama this week announced it will close 31 driver’s license offices, most of which are located in predominantly Black communities just one year after a strict voter ID law took effect in the state.
The state, whose treatment of African-Americans led to passage of the Voting Rights Act in 1965, cites budget cuts for the reason it must close the DMV offices. However, at least two Alabama news columnists say the motivation for this action appears to go beyond simply budget cuts. “There’s something bigger happening here,” wrote Kyle Whitmire, state political columnist for the Alabama Media Group and AL.com.
“In Alabama’s Black Belt disproportionately poor and disproportionately African-American either 12 or 15 counties (depending on which counties you count in the Black Belt) will no longer have a place to obtain the most common form of identification used at the polls,” he wrote.
