A bill to allow special primary elections in legislative and congressional races if the U.S. Supreme Court changes how race is applied to drawing maps cleared an Alabama Senate committee on Tuesday.
Senate Bill 23 by Senate President Pro Tem Garlan Gudger, R-Cullman, allows for out-of- schedule primary elections if “the boundaries of one or more legislative or congressional districts to be used in the next general election are changed or altered by either an act of the Legislature or by order, judgment, or mandate from a state or federal court which permits or requires the use of legislative or congressional district boundaries…”
The bill comes as Alabama and other states await a U.S. Supreme Court decision on a Louisiana case that could place further limits on using race when drawing congressional districts. A decision is expected in the spring. It could impact recently court draw state Senate and congressional districts that were previously challenged. Most recently, a federal judge in November approved two significantly redrawn state Senate districts after previously ruling that the Legislature-approved state Senate map violated the Voting Rights Act by illegally diluting the influence of Black voters around Montgomery.
“(The bill) allows us the flexibility to deal with that Supreme Court decision here and the time to do so before a primary, or expending that timeframe depending on what the outcome of the (Louisiana) case is,” Sen. Chris Elliott, R-Josephine, told the Senate County and Municipal Government Committee. Tuesday. He was handling the bill for Gudger.
The bill now goes to the full Senate.