Voter Registration
Registration Deadline: For any election, the last day to register to vote or update your voter registration is the 15th day prior to the election.
Party Affiliation: In Alabama, the primary election is part of the nominating process for a political party. It is used to select who will represent a party in the general election. You will inform your poll worker of your political party preference, and you are required to choose one political party’s primary over another because you cannot participate in the nomination of both parties’ candidates. However, in the general election, you may split your ticket and vote for candidates from each political party.
If you choose not to declare a political preference at the primary election, you will not be eligible to vote in any political party’s primary election. You are, however, still eligible to vote on any proposed constitutional amendments that are up for a vote.
Voter Registration Qualifications
Age: Must be at least 18 years old on or before election day.
Citizenship: Must be a United States citizen.
Residency: Must be a resident of the state of Alabama.
Mental Competency: You must not have been judged "mentally incompetent" in a court of law.
Felony Convictions: You must not be barred from voting by reason of a disqualifying felony conviction.
Obtaining a Voter Registration Form
Online: You must have a valid Alabama Driver's License or valid Alabama Non-Driver's Identification card to submit an Electronic Voter Registration Application.
Here is a fillable PDF version of the application
You can also have an Alabama Mail-In Voter Registration Form mailed to you.
By phone: call the Elections Division in the Office of the Secretary of State (SOS) at 1-800-274-8683
By mail: Download the Alabama Mail-In Voter Registration Form and return it to your Local County Board or Registrar's office
Verifying Your Voter Registration Status
Online: Online Voter Registration Verification
Absentee Ballot Qualifications
A voter may cast an absentee ballot if they:
- Will be absent from the county on election day.
- Is ill or has a physical disability that prevents a trip to the polling place.
- Is physically incapacitated and will not be able to vote in person because they cannot access their assigned polling place AND he or she is an elderly voter (65 or older) or he or she is a voter with a disability.
- Is a registered Alabama voter living outside the county, such as a member of the armed forces, a voter employed outside the United States, a college student, or a spouse or child of such a person.
- Is an appointed election officer or poll watcher at a polling place other than his or her regular polling place.
- Works a required shift which has at least 10 hours that coincides with polling hours.
- Is a caregiver for a family member to the second degree of kinship by affinity or consanguinity and the family member is confined to his or her home.
-Is currently incarcerated in prison or jail and has not been convicted of a felony involving moral turpitude.
Business/Medical Emergency Voting applications can be made after the absentee deadline but no later than 5 PM on the day before the election. Click here for more information.
Get an emergency absentee ballot here.
Obtaining an Absentee Ballot
In person: Visit your local Absentee Election Manager (usually the Circuit Clerk) to request an absentee ballot, and provide the following:
-name and residential address (or other such information in order to verify voter registration)
-a copy of your valid photo identification
-election for which the ballot is requested
-reason for absence from polls on election day
-party choice, if the election is a party primary. (It is not necessary to give a party choice for a general election; however, in a party primary a voter may participate in only one political party's primary; thus a choice must be designated so that the appropriate ballot can be provided. If the voter declines or fails to designate a choice for a primary or primary runoff ballot, the absentee election manager may send only the ballot for constitutional amendments.)
-address to which the ballot should be mailed
-voter signature (Electronic signatures will not be accepted. If a mark is made in place of a signature, it must be witnessed)
By mail/in writing: You can request an absentee ballot application be mailed to you with this request form.
You could fill out the Absentee Ballot Application or you can write to your local Absentee Election Manager with the information listed above.
Absentee ballot applications delivered by mail must be received in the office of the Absentee Election Manager for your county no later than 7 days prior to the election. Applications returned by hand must be received in the office of the Absentee Election Manager for your county no later than 5 days prior to the election.
If the absentee ballot application is approved, the Absentee Election Manager will forward the absentee ballot by U.S. mail, or personally hand the absentee ballot to the voter (or designee in the case of medical emergency absentee voting)
ABSENTEE BALLOT PROCEDURE
The absentee ballot comes with three envelopes -- one plain (the secrecy envelope), one with an affidavit, or oath, printed on the outside, and one plain envelope, preaddressed (the outer envelope). Once the voter casts the ballot, the procedure is as follows:
-Seal the ballot in the plain envelope
-Place the plain envelope inside the accompanying affidavit envelope
-Seal the affidavit envelope and complete the affidavit that is on the outside of the envelope
-Sign the affidavit and have the signature witnessed by either a notary public or two witnesses 18 years of age or older
An absentee ballot cannot be counted unless the affidavit is notarized or has the signature of two witnesses. Electronic or remote notarization is not permitted.
Submitting an Absentee Ballot
The voter has the following legal ways to return the absentee ballot:
Forwards the absentee ballot by U.S. mail
Forwards the absentee ballot by commercial carrier
Personally hands their own absentee ballot to the absentee election manager (or delivers by a designee in the case of emergency absentee voting)
An absentee ballot returned by mail must be postmarked no later than the day prior to the election and received by the Absentee Election Manager no later than noon on election day. If hand-delivered, the ballot must be in the office of the Absentee Election Manager by the close of business (but no later than 5pm) on the day prior to the election.
Military and overseas voting: For more info on military and overseas absentee voting click here.
VOTER ID
Beginning with the June 3, 2014 primary election, Act 2011-673 requires an Alabama voter to have a specific type of photo identification at the polls in order to vote. If a voter does not have one of the approved forms of photo ID as stated in the law, then he or she may receive a free Alabama photo voter ID from various locations including the Secretary of State's Office, local county board of registrars' offices, and a mobile location to be determined by the Secretary of State's Office. If a voter possesses any form of a valid ID, you are not eligible to to receive the free voter ID card.
To download the application for a free photo voter ID, click here.
To see the list of valid IDs at the polls click here. The voter must bring one of these photo IDs to the polls on Election Day or place a copy of the ID in absentee ballot materials.
VOTING ON ELECTION DAY
You can wear campaign buttons or t-shirts with political advertisements into the polling place. However, you should not loiter or leave any campaign materials in the polling place.
You can bring your cell phone into the polling place. However, use of the phone in the polling place should not disturb other voters or disrupt the polling place. If your cell phone has a camera, you cannot take photographs or film video inside the polling place. Each voter has a right to cast a ballot in secrecy and in private. The U.S. Department of Justice has advised that photography or videotaping inside a polling place does not serve any useful purpose and may instead actually intimidate voters who are exercising their right to vote.
You can bring your sample ballot into the voting booth. However, you should not leave the sample ballot in the polling place.
Additional Information
Verifying provisional ballot status: Provisional ballot verification
Verifying absentee ballot status: Absentee ballot status
Deciding how to vote: votesmart.org
Polling Place: Polling place locator
Problems with voting: HAVA Voter Complaint Form
This amendment will authorize the State of Alabama to borrow money to improve, renovate, equip, acquire, provide, construct and maintain state parks, public historical sites and public historical parks.
The total amount the State may borrow will not exceed $85,000,000.00.
Of this total amount:
1. $80,000,000.00 shall be used to improve, renovate, equip, acquire, provide, construct and maintain state parks under the Alabama Department of Conservation and Natural Resources.
2. $5,000,000.00 shall be used to improve, renovate, equip, acquire, provide, construct and maintain public historical sites and public historical parks under the Alabama Historical Commission. The Alabama Historical Commission cannot use any part of the borrowed money at the Confederate Memorial Park in Marbury, Alabama.
Any additional funds will be given to the Alabama Forestry Commission for it to improve, renovate, acquire, provide, construct, equip and maintain state forests.
If the majority of the voters vote "yes" on Amendment 1, the State of Alabama can borrow $85,000,000.000 to benefit Alabama's state parks, public historical sites and public historical parks.
If the majority of the voters vote "no" on Amendment 1, the State of Alabama cannot borrow $85,000,000.000 to benefit Alabama's state parks, public historical sites and public historical parks.
There are no costs to Amendment 1.
The Constitutional authority for passage of Amendment 1 is set forth in accordance with Sections 284 and 285 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901. These sections outline the method a constitutional amendment may be put to the people of the State for a vote.
Amendment 1 amended the Alabama Constitution to allow the Alabama State Legislature to deny bail to defendants in certain cases. The measure was referred to as Aniah's Law.
The legislature also passed House Bill 130, which was set to take effect along with the amendment. HB 130 enumerates offenses for which bail may be denied by a court, including murder, kidnapping, rape, assault, and more. For individuals charged with listed offenses under the bill, bail can be denied "if the prosecuting attorney proves by clear and convincing evidence that no condition or combination of conditions of release will reasonably ensure the defendant's appearance in court or protect the safety of the community or any person."
This amendment applies only to the Town of Lake View in Tuscaloosa and Jefferson Counties.
If the majority of the voters vote yes on Amendment 9, certain privately owned sewage treatment plants in the Town of Lake View in Tuscaloosa and Jefferson Counties will be regulated by the Alabama Public Service Commission.
If the majority of the voters vote no on Amendment 9, certain privately owned sewage treatment plants in the Town of Lake View in Tuscaloosa and Jefferson Counties will not be regulated by the Alabama Public Service Commission.
There are no costs to Amendment 9.
The Constitutional authority for passage of Amendment 9 is set forth in accordance with Sections 284 and 285 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901. These sections outline the method a constitutional amendment may be put to the people of the State for a vote.
Amendment 6 allowed certain cities that were previously authorized to levy a special property tax to pay for bonds or other forms of debt to also use the tax revenue to pay for capital improvements directly on a pay-as-you-go basis. The amendment allowed the cities to use such revenue to pay the principal and interest on bonds or other securities being used to finance or refinance the costs of the improvements. It also validated any past use of such property tax revenue directly for capital improvements.
Amendment 5 was designed to remove orphans' business from the jurisdiction of county probate courts. County probate courts were set to remain responsible for adoptions, guardianships, and granting letters of testamentary.
Amendment 2 allowed the state and local governments to grant federal awards funds or other state-designated broadband funds to public or private entities to provide or expand infrastructure for Broadband internet (high-speed internet with defined upload and download speed capabilities). Funds granted by a local government to a private entity need to be approved at a public meeting in the county or municipality.
Amendment 4 required that any legislation changing the conduct of a general election must be implemented at least six months before the next affected general election.
Approval of this measure would provide for adding voter-approved amendments appearing on the May 24 and November 8 ballot into the new state constitution if the new state constitution is ratified by voters at the November 8 election. Since the amendments on the ballot were written to amend the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, approval of this amendment is required to incorporate them into the updated Constitution of Alabama of 2022 if it is ratified by voters. The amendment would also provide that any court decision relating to any provision of the Alabama Constitution of 1901 will remain valid and any case annotations will be noted with the relevant provision in the Constitution of Alabama of 2022 if the section has not been substantively changed in the updated constitution.
Under the current provisions of Amendment 772 of the Alabama Constitution, counties and municipalities are authorized to lend or grant public funds or things of value to an individual, public entitity, or private entity "for the purpose of promoting the economic and industrial development of the county or the municipality." Under Amendment 772, the county or municipality must adopt a resolution determining that the funds would serve a public purpose and must publish a notice of the proposed action in the largest circulating newspaper in the county or municipality for at least seven days.
This 2022 ballot measure retains counties' and municipalities' existing authority to provide for financing economic and industrial development through lending credit, granting public funds, issuing bonds, leasing property, or lending bonds to a private entity. The measure would remove the requirement that the newspaper publication be in the largest circulating newspaper, and instead allow the publication to be made in any newspaper in the jurisdiction. The amendment would also ratify all actions and agreements by counties and municipalities made under Amendment 772 unless they are subject to pending lawsuits.
Under the current provisions of Section 222 of the state constitution, local governments are required to receive voter approval to issue bonds. Under the 2022 ballot measure, local governments would be exempt from this provision unless the bond issue also had a repayment provision such as a tax increase.
Voter approval of this measure ratified an updated and recompiled state constitution, the Constitution of Alabama 2022. The Alabama State Legislature was authorized to update language in the constitution and recompile it into proper sections following voter approval of Amendment 4 in 2020.
Changes to the constitution were limited to:
arranging it in proper articles, parts, and sections;
removing all racist language;
deleting duplicative and repealed provisions;
consolidating provisions regarding economic development; and
arranging all local amendments by county of application.
The amendment would require the governor to provide notice to the attorney general and make reasonable efforts to notify a designated family member of a victim before granting a commutation (a reduced sentence such as life imprisonment) or reprieve (temporary stay of execution) of a death sentence. The attorney general would provide a mailing address, email address, and phone number to the Governor for the purposes of contacting the victim's family. Failing to provide notice would void the reprieve or commutation of the death sentence and the attorney general and Alabama Supreme Court could seek a new execution order.
This amendment applies only to Shelby County.
If the majority of the voters vote yes on Amendment 8, certain privately owned sewage treatment plants in Shelby County will be regulated by the Alabama Public Service Commission.
If the majority of the voters vote no on Amendment 8, certain privately owned sewage treatment plants in Shelby County will not be regulated by the Alabama Public Service Commission.
There are no costs to Amendment 8.
The Constitutional authority for passage of Amendment 8 is set forth in accordance with Sections 284 and 285 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901. These sections outline the method a constitutional amendment may be put to the people of the State for a vote.
