Thousands of black voters in Alabama’s congressional district were redrawn to increase their voting power. They receive mail with incorrect district information

Thousands of voters in Alabama who were reassigned to a congressional district redrawn by a federal court to boost black voting power received mail misidentifying which district they belonged to.

Ahead of the Super Tuesday primary, 6,593 voters currently in the newly reformed 2nd Congressional District received postcards saying they were still in the seventh Congressional District, the Associated Press reports.

The Southern Poverty Law Center previously reported that 5,604 voters received postcards and 4,513 of them were black.

One black voter told the Montgomery Advertiser that she received one of these postcards though she knew she belonged to the 2nd District. She said she even received anonymous phone calls incorrectly telling her which day to vote.

“A lot of people probably fell for that bait, but I didn’t” – Adigale Brooks he said.

James Snipes, chairman of the Montgomery County Board of Recorders, told the AP that the error was attributable to a “glitch” in the county’s election software but didn’t affect voters’ ability to vote for the right candidates.

“Everyone who came into their precinct could vote for the right candidates,” Snipes said. “It was a good faith effort.”

Even though the postcards were sent by the Montgomery County Board of Recorders, the SPLC blamed the Secretary of State’s Office for the error. Officials with the Secretary of State’s office told multiple outlets they were not responsible.

“The information contained in statewide voter files is entered at the county level. The Secretary of State simply maintains the database” – Laney Rawls he said AL.com. “If the information on file was incorrect, it would have been entered incorrectly by the county, not the Secretary of State’s office.”

The county sent updated notices to all voters who received mail containing incorrect information.

“This is more than just a mistake. Providing misinformation to thousands of voters on the eve of a hotly contested primary could very well impact turnout and election results for both Republicans and Democrats,” said Bradley Heard, SPLC deputy legal director for democracy and voting rights, the Montgomery Advertiser. “An immediate audit and public accountability of Secretary Wes Allen’s office on the scope of the problem is necessary.”

Montgomery County is currently part of the 2nd Congressional District, Alabama’s newest majority-black district. The county has nearly 160,000 voters.

Last yr, the Supreme Court ruled that Alabama lawmakers had to create a second majority-Black district after concluding that their old congressional map diluted the ability of the Black vote. Only one of Alabama’s seven congressional districts in a state where the black population is 28% was majority black.

State lawmakers twice ignored the court’s ruling, so in November a panel of federal judges appointed a special master to redraw state district boundaries. Currently, nearly 49 percent of voters in the newly reformed 2nd District are black, giving them the chance to elect one other black representative to Congress.

“For many black voters in this district, this is the first election in which they have the opportunity to elect a representative who looks like them,” Camille Wimbish, national director of campaigns and field programs for the Lawyers Committee for Civil Rights Under Law, told the AP. “This could have resulted in many Black Alabamians staying home and not voting at all.”

The same error was discovered in January when one other batch of postcards was sent. Election officials then thought they’d fixed a bug in their software.

“It is disappointing that voters in Montgomery County are facing classic disenfranchisement,” said state Rep. Napoleon Bracy Jr.