Scottsboro officials' terms would be extended a year under Alabama Legislature bills
A voter walks into Jackson Way Baptist Church during Election Day on Tuesday, Nov. 5, 2024 in Huntsville, Ala. Two bills in the Legislature would extend the terms of officials in Scottsboro to get the city on the same election cycle as the rest of the state. (Eric Schultz for Alabama Reflector)
Lawmakers are considering legislation that would modify the election cycle for a municipality located in the northeastern part of Alabama.
Both HB 132, sponsored by Rep. Mike Kirkland, R-Scottsboro, and SB 139, filed by Senate Majority Leader Steve Livingston, R-Scottsboro, extend the term for the mayor of Scottsboro; the city council and the local board of education. Kirkland said in an interview that the legislation aims to put the city 'on the same cycle as other municipal elections across the state.' Scottsboro was excluded from a 2021 law that covered most Alabama cities.
'We were kind of out there, we weren't part of the original bill that moved the elections, so what this does is it gets us caught up with everybody else,' said.
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The two bills, nearly identical in language, will lengthen the terms of Scottsboro City Council that expire in 2026 to 2027, when elections for the next term will take place, and occur afterward on a four-year cycle.
The bills would extend the mayor's term from 2028 to 2029.
School board terms that expire in either 2028 or 2030 will be extended to 2029 and 2031, respectively. All future municipal and school board elections will take place in August.
'After the effective date of this act, if no candidate for mayor, member of the city council, or member of the city board of education receives a majority of votes cast in the regular municipal election, a second or run-off election shall be held on the fourth Tuesday following the regular election,' the bill states
The Alabama Legislature in 2021 enacted a law standardizing municipal elections across the state and extending municipal official terms by a year. Scottsboro was not included in the law, requested from the Alabama League of Municipalities, because the city already had rules in place governing when its elections would take place.
'That affected all municipalities with the exception of a handful with local legislative bills that directed their elections,' said Scottsboro Mayor Jim McCamy, elected in 2020. 'The city of Scottsboro was one of those cities. We had two local bills way back in the 1950s that directed our elections, and because of that, we and any of the others that it didn't apply to had to have a local bill to put us on the same cycle as the rest of the state.'
Local officials had been working with their state legislators to get legislation enacted, but their bills stalled because the Legislature had other priorities. Scottsboro is working to get legislation passed in the current session.
Kirkland added that altering the terms for officials to get on the same cycle as the state would increase voter turnout.
'Typically, there is a competition for resources for ballots, but more specifically electronic vote-counting tabulators,' said Rob Johnston, director of legal services for the Alabama League of Municipalities. 'When the counties are using them for county and statewide elections, then the municipalities will have to find their own resources, and poll workers as well.'
Scottsboro also wants to remove themselves from the presidential cycle to downplay the partisan impact of its elections because municipal officials are nonpartisan, not affiliated with a political party.
'Have you ever seen a Republican or Democrat pothole in a street?' McCamy said. 'I haven't, and I never have. It doesn't matter; it is what it is.'
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