HOOVER, Ala. -- At a pivotal moment in the fight over closings of driver's license offices across the state, Hillary Clinton went after her Republican rivals for making it harder to vote here on Saturday.

"Jeb Bush says he wouldn't reauthorize the Voting Rights Act," she said, speaking to more than 700 Alabama Democrats gathered for the Alabama Democratic Conference's semi-annual convention.

"I voted to reauthorize the Voting Rights Act," she continued, "and President George W. Bush signed it, so he clearly thought it was still needed."

She criticized Florida Sen. Marco Rubio for asking "what's the big deal" about voter identification laws and Ohio Gov. John Kasich for restricting early voting.

"What part of democracy are these Republicans afraid of?" Clinton said.

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Clinton also called on Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley "not only to listen to [his] constituents but listen to [his] conscience" and reverse his decision to permanently close 31 driver's license offices. Amid backlash over the decision, Bentley on Friday asked a state agency to keep an office open in the affected counties one day each month.

"We've got to stop this before it gets out of control and before people in power start picking and choosing who gets to have a voice," Clinton said. "They won't stop with rural counties and driver's license offices."

Clinton also mentioned the time she spent in South Texas registering people, mainly Latinos, to vote. It's a story she has told many times on the campaign trail, most recently on Thursday in San Antonio, where she held a rally to fire up her Latino supporters.

Clinton has proposed creating an automatic voter registration system that registers all 18-year-olds along with setting a nationwide standard of 20 days of early, in-person voting.