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
Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 2022, to grant certain sixteenth section and indemnity school land that is owned in fee simple by the Franklin County school system, is located in Fayette County and Walker County, and is for the exclusive use of schools in the Franklin County School System to the Franklin County Board of Education; and to provide for the distribution of any proceeds and interest generated by this land to the Franklin County Board of Education.
This amendment will change Section 71.01 of the Alabama Constitution. Section 71.01 establishes the priority of the next years budgets over the approval of other laws by the Legislature. Currently, Section 71.01 prohibits bills or laws from being considered by the House of Representatives or the Senate before the budgets are approved by the Legislature and sent to the Governor, unless an additional vote is approved by the House and Senate of at least a three-fifths (3/5ths) vote.
This amendment will change Section 71.01 to provide exceptions for the passage of local laws or local constitutional amendments.
If the majority of voters vote yes on Amendment 1, Section 71.01 of the Alabama Constitution will be changed to allow proposed local laws and proposed local constitutional amendments to be considered before the budgets are approved and sent to the Governor without the additional three fifths (3/5ths) vote.
If the majority of voters vote no on Amendment 1, Section 71.01 of the Alabama Constitution will not be changed and proposed local laws and proposed local constitutional amendments will continue to require the additional three-fifths (3/5ths) vote before being considered. There are no costs or additional taxes related to Amendment 1. The Constitutional authority for passage of Amendment 1 is set forth in accordance with Sections 284, 285 and 287 of the Constitution of Alabama. These sections outline the method a constitutional amendment may be put to the people of the State for a vote.[3]
