Give us the ballot, not just the bottle. That was a cry heard over and over again at the unique event on the steps of the Alabama State Capitol. It mixed a short drama, a press conference and a rally into one moment. The shouts expressed a deeply felt concern. Give us the ballot, not just the bottle.

In late September, Alabama decided to completely close down 31 driver’s license offices (Department of Motor Vehicles or DMVs). Citizens in 28 counties would have to drive to other counties to secure driver’s licenses. This would be a severe hardship for thousands of citizens. But they made sure citizens could get a bottle of liquor in the county. Give us the ballot, not just the bottle.

The governor of Alabama proclaimed that this was a budgetary necessity caused by a lack of revenue. Then it was revealed by DMV’s own analysis that these shut downs would only save $100,000. It was further revealed that the very same governor left open state owned liquor stores, some of which were losing as much as $75,000 per year per store. They wanted to make the bottle easy to get and driver’s licenses hard to get. Give us the ballot, not just the bottle.

If it was just budgetary, the governor could have closed down just one state store losing $75,000 per year and nearly made up the $100,000 deficit. However, one of the governor’s people explained that it was important to leave open money losing state owned liquor stores because citizens should not have to drive to the next county to get a “bottle.” They wanted to make sure citizens could get the “bottle” in the county while making sure that many would have to drive to other counties to get driver’s licenses. Give us the ballot, not just the bottle.

Alabama has taken various steps to make certain that the vote was limited. The most notorious is requiring photo ID to vote. There is no need for voter photo ID because there is no voter fraud by citizens pretending to be someone else to vote. Driver’s licenses are the overwhelming choice of photo ID for voting. Now Alabama is making it harder to get a driver’s license.

That means more citizens will be driving without driver’s licenses. That means more unlicensed drivers will be putting others in danger. That means that poor people will have to lose a day from work and pay others to drive them to another county to secure a driver’s license. The governor closed the driver’s license offices in spite of raising the driver’s license fee from $23.50 to $36.25, a 54 percent increase.

The governor closed these driver’s license offices in spite of language in the budget prohibiting the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency (ALEA) from closing driver’s license offices. This is not about revenue or budgets. Give us the ballot, not just the bottle.

These closings of driver’s license offices are really about voting. Alabama has one of the worst voter photo ID laws in the country. It requires extensive ID to get photo ID. It prohibits the use of photo ID issued by public schools and public universities. If you make any mistake on information provided in the application for voter photo ID you can get imprisonment of up to 10 years. It also makes it a crime to have voter photo ID if you have another government issued photo ID. It carries a prison sentence of up to 10 years. Citizens simply do not want voter photo ID. They are dangerous to have. Only a few thousand have been issued in spite of the hundreds of thousands of citizens without photo ID. They want driver’s licenses which can be used for anything without risking criminal charge. Give us the ballot, not just the bottle.

The Alabama Legislature recently passed another law to keep certain people from voting. It’s the interstate pact which lists citizens from various states with similar names. These lists contain a very high percentage of African Americans and other minorities. If a similar name is on the list, we will not be allowed to cast a secret ballot. It just never stops. Give us the ballot, not just the bottle.

In October, the No Shut Down Caravan traveled to 12 counties over two days protesting the closing of driver’s license offices. It drew strong support, but more is required. Give us the ballot, not just the bottle is a follow up. Its intent is to dramatize the determined efforts to make it easy for citizens to buy liquor while making it hard for citizens to get driver’s licenses with which to vote, drive to and from work and school, etc. Give us the ballot, not just the bottle.

We will not admit that we don’t want certain people to vote. It’s always done indirectly but effectively.

That’s the way it was with poll taxes and literacy tests where race was never mentioned. That’s the way it was with voter re-identification efforts where race was never mentioned.

That’s the way it is with voter photo ID where race is never mentioned but it is all about race.

That’s the way it is with the closing of driver’s license offices where race is not mentioned but it’s all about race.

That’s why 11 of 13 Black Belt counties had their driver’s license offices closed. Give us the ballot, not just the bottle.

Because of the state and national political outcry about closing driver’s license offices, the governor said that he would re-open them one day a month. This is not nearly enough. This is just a way to reduce the political heat. It’s like giving us the “bottle” to make us feel better when the problem is still there. That’s why we continue to say. Give us the ballot, not just the bottle.

When we believe something is wrong, we must speak out again and again and again.

However, we must speak in ways that people will hear us. That’s why we held the No Shut Down Caravan and the Give us the Ballot, not just the Bottle event.