President's Message
- Spring Issue 2006
Changes will make election cycle memorable
This year's election cycle in Alabama will be a very memorable one - not necessarily for who is going to win and lose but for all the other changes that will take place.
Some of the changes will not really be noticeable, such as the many technical alterations to Alabama's election laws that were made in a 100-page bill that passed on the final night of this year's regular session. But other changes hit at the very core of how we operate and manage one of our most precious rights - the right to select our governmental representatives and to speak our collective voices on constitutional amendments and other ballot questions.
Because of the importance of election-day, many of the new provisions will result in questions (and perhaps complaints) from the voters who go to the polls. And, of course, those questions and complaints will come to us as the members of government who are closest to the people and who have been charged with the responsibility of ensuring that our elections run smoothly.
The most significant, and most expensive, change that voters will notice is the purchase and operation of new voting equipment in order to comply with the federal Help America Vote Act. Our Association staff has spent an enormous amount of time and energy into seeing that this process has been as smooth as possible. But this process as been anything but painless.
In three Alabama counties, voters will be using totally new equipment, swapping from equipment that includes a private voting booth to the use of paper ballots with an on-site vote counting machine. In another nine counties, the voters will continue to use paper ballots, but will also be using the on-site vote counting equipment instead of a centralized counting system at the courthouse.
And in all 67 counties, new machines will be stationed at each polling place for use by those persons with physical handicaps that make it impossible or inconvenient to use the paper ballot system.
By now, all counties have their voting equipment on hand and are preparing to educate their election-day workers as well as the general public. The price tag on the voting equipment is going to be somewhere in the neighborhood of $18 million. Fortunately, the State of Alabama has received federal funds to reimburse the counties for this mandated expenditure and to carry out other requirements of the federal law.
As you read this, county officials all over the state are working to complete the paperwork necessary to seek reimbursement for the counties' expenditures for this new equipment before the end of this fiscal year.
In all but a couple of counties, the voting equipment was purchased through the ACCA Joint Bid Program. This purchasing system was established by the Alabama Legislature and our Association to reduce the duplication of effort in the solicitation and awarding of bids for similar items purchased by all counties. Certainly the work by the ACCA staff on this aspect of the project has reduced -- but not eliminated -- the headaches on the local level.
Although the new voting equipment is a significant change that will be visible in every polling place in the state, there will be other things unusual about this election.
In the final minutes of this year's regular legislative session, a new act was passed shifting the political party primary run-off election to the third Tuesday in July. This act is effective for this year's election cycle. Counties that rent or use polling places that are not owned and/or under the control of the county commission need to be taking steps immediately to ensure that the polling facility will be available for a possible run-off on July 18, 2006.
Incidentally, those county commissioners seeking re-election this year should also be aware that this change will mean that the time between the party primary election and the party run-off has been extended to six weeks. This creates an additional three weeks of run-off campaigning - which may be good news for some of you and not-so-good news for others.
The Legislature also granted a much-needed pay increase to the election-day poll workers. The new law will result in the poll workers receiving as much as $100 per day and inspectors receiving up to $125 per day. Because of the hard work of our Association and many of our legislative friends, this increase in pay is being funded by the state.
And, because the compensation of the absentee election manager is tied to the pay of the poll workers, this act will result in an increase in compensation to the absentee election manager, as well. Unfortunately, the existing law that sets the pay of the absentee election manager requires the county commission to pay half of his or her salary. So we will be required to pay an additional $15 per day for the 46-day absentee election period.
Other changes in Alabama's election law were also passed during this year's session. But most of the other changes, such as the creation of a new presidential preference primary election, will not impact this year's ballot process.
This new presidential preference primary, which will be held in February, does not take affect until 2008. That gives us ample time to talk about the provisions of that new law long before the primary takes place.
With all these changes, one thing about election-day is expected to remain the same -- we can be certain that come November some current county commissioners will see their terms of office end. Either through their own decision not to run or because the voters chose to have someone else represent them at the county commission level, we will have another new group of county commissioners in just a few months. The members of that new group will attend the orientation in December and will be expected to step in as active members of this Association.
It will then become their responsibility to work to further the Association's goal of improving county government. It will become their responsibility to educate the public about the important role county government plays in their lives. And, it will be their responsibility to help ensure that any further election law changes are made with an eye on how they will impact county government.
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