HB308INTRODUCED
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HB308
PSBK5ER-1
By Representative Carns
RFD: Constitution, Campaigns and Elections
First Read: 18-Feb-25
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5 PSBK5ER-1 02/18/2025 OW (L)cr 2024-2702
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First Read: 18-Feb-25
SYNOPSIS:
Under existing law, the judge of probate in each
county is required to publish the list of registered
voters before a primary election.
This bill would provide an exception to the
required publication of registered voters.
A BILL
TO BE ENTITLED
AN ACT
Relating to elections; to amend Section 17-4-1, Code of
Alabama 1975, to provide an exception to the required
publication of registered voters.
BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF ALABAMA:
Section 1. Section 17-4-1, Code of Alabama 1975, is
amended to read as follows:
"ยง17-4-1
(a)(1) The judge of probate shall publish from the
state voter registration list a correct alphabetical list of
qualified electors either by county, precinct, district, or
subdivision wherein each elector is registered to vote, in
some newspaper with general circulation in the county, on or
before the twentieth day preceding the regularly scheduled
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before the twentieth day preceding the regularly scheduled
primary election.
(2) Publication of the list of voters by the judge of
probate is required unless the cost of publication would
exceed forty thousand dollars ($40,000).
(3) The list shall be accompanied by a printed
certification generated by the state voter registration system
verifying that the list contains the names of all qualified
electors registered as of the specified time and date when it
the list was printed. The list shall further state that any
elector whose name was inadvertently omitted from the list
shall have 10 days in within which to have his or her name
entered upon the list of qualified voters.
(b) If within 10 days any voter shall reasonably
satisfy satisfies the board of registrars by proper proof that
any name should be added to the list, the board shall add such
the name to the list. The If the judge of probate is required
to publish the list pursuant to subsection (a), the
supplemental list of registered voters inadvertently omitted
from the original list shall be published once in a newspaper
of general circulation in the county on or before the seventh
day preceding the date of the primary election.
(c) The lists required to be published pursuant to this
section may be published , at the discretion of the county
commission, may be published as a preprinted or inserted
advertising supplement at a cost no greater than the selected
newspaper's lowest applicable national insertion rates. If the
list is published as a preprinted supplement in the selected
newspaper, the supplement size shall conform to the size
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newspaper, the supplement size shall conform to the size
requirements set by the selected newspaper and shall be
printed on standard newsprint paper. The type size shall be no
smaller than nine point standard type. The list shall also be
delivered to the newspaper for insertion in a manner required
for other advertising supplements. The supplement may not
contain any other advertising. Any newspaper accepting a
preprinted insertion that is not prepared by the newspaper
shall not be responsible for the content of such the
insertion.
(d) Nothing in this section shall prohibit a county
commission from publishing the list of voters in more than one
newspaper within the county at the county commission's
discretion."
Section 2. This act shall become effective on October
1, 2025.
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