Connect with us

Hi, what are you looking for?

Elections

Alabama state and county candidate qualifying period ends Friday

A federal court clarified Wednesday that a previous deadline extension only applies to congressional candidates.

Close up of voting signs pointing toward the polling location on a rainy day.

A federal court on Wednesday clarified that the court’s Monday injunction that halted Alabama’s new congressional maps extended the qualifying deadline only for congressional candidates. 

When the three-judge panel issued their ruling on January 24th extending the qualifying period, it was unclear whether the ruling pertained to only congressional candidates or to all candidates. The court’s clarification Wednesday settles that matter.  

Except for those congressional candidates, all state and county candidates must qualify by the close of business on Friday, Jan. 28, the Alabama Secretary of State’s Office said in a statement Wednesday. 

A three-judge panel on Monday issued a preliminary injunction blocking Alabama’s plan to redraw congressional districts. Those judges ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, who argued the state’s new maps, which has just one majority-minority congressional district, violates the Voting Rights Act. 

Those judges extended the deadline for congressional candidates to qualify to Feb. 11, which would give the legislature, currently in session, time to redraw those congressional maps without disrupting election timing. 

Alabama’s attorney general on Tuesday began appealing the federal injunction, however, which threatens to throw the election timetable off.

Eddie Burkhalter is a reporter at the Alabama Political Reporter. You can email him at [email protected] or reach him via Twitter.

More from APR

Prisons

Alabama tried to execute Kenneth Smith last year but failed due to a botched lethal injection.

Featured Opinion

What the state is experiencing can be termed a "soft dictatorship" where one-party rule gradually becomes dominated by its radical wing.

Courts

The decision comes after two years of Black voters challenging Alabama’s congressional maps in the courts.

Courts

While the denial of the stay is an important win for voting rights advocates, it is not the end of the fight.