AL House Democrats filibuster voting rights bill for 4 hours

MONTGOMERY, AL (WSFA) - The Alabama House was only able to work through two bills on Tuesday as House Democrats proceeded to filibuster a bill on voter registration.

For about four hours, members of the Democratic Caucus took turns at the microphone using their allotted time to just talk, and it was not always about the bill at hand.

The bill they're trying to kill would back up the deadline to register to vote, from 15 days before an election to 30 days before an election.

Representative John Knight says the bill is an attempt to take away voting rights.

"We feel like we should make it more convenient for people to vote, we should not be trying to handicap people from going to the polls and voting," Representative John Knight said. "I think we ought to make it convenient for everyone to have the opportunity to exercise their right to vote. We should not, as legislators, be trying to make it more difficult."

It's too early to know if Tuesday's filibuster actually killed the bill, but we do know it won't be back up this week. A House committee has already created a special order calendar for Thursday, and it will be adopted when the House convenes at 9:30 a.m.

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