FROM THE COVER
and supplies to polling places or maintaining county-owned voting houses.
And the fundamental importance and even symbolic value of elections cannot insulate even this governmental function from budgetary pressure at all levels.
When the think-tank for state legislatures took a hard look at election expenses, researchers could not establish a grand total dollar figure.
“ Perhaps the biggest takeaway from our work on election costs is this: Money matters,” the report states.“ Not that money is the only factor when making decisions about election policy. There’ s also turnout, reliability, accessibility, accuracy and a host of other values. Democracy is not a place for cutting corners.”
In any of Alabama’ s 67 counties, a host of factors can influence how heavily election administration weighs on the commission – the life cycle of election equipment, effectiveness of leadership from other local officials and skillfulness of county staff.
“ Most of my commissioners don’ t do anything around elections except run,” said Bill English, Lee County’ s probate judge and commission chairman. He has been improving election administration in his county for more than 30 years altogether, with 18 years on staff before he became an elected official himself.
“ It’ s a big part of my job. I love it,” he said.“ To me, it’ s part of our service. People don’ t have to wait very long to get a ballot in Lee County.”
Additional sources:“ Alabama Election Handbook, 18th edition, 2017-2018”( PDF www. lsa. state. al. us / ali / ali. aspx) and“ Handbook for Alabama County Commissioners, 12th edition) n
Electing County Commissioners in Alabama
Alabama’ s county commissioners have a long tradition of standing together, of speaking with One voice. That degree of unity has made remarkable achievements possible, and it is even more noteworthy when you consider variations among the 67 counties.
This variety is evident when you take a look at the 2018 election cycle at the county level. Fifty counties have one or more commission seats on the ballot this year, and there are some interesting variations in exactly how each commission is structured and elected.
The traditional district system may be most familiar – with each commissioner living in a designated geographic area and only accountable to voters also living in that area – but that is far from the only option.
All commissioners are required to serve full-time in Lamar Co. and 10 others( Blount, Cullman, Limestone, Madison, Marion, Marshall, Mobile, Morgan, Tuscaloosa & Walker)
Each Baldwin Co. commissioner represents one of the four districts and must live in that district. But they all campaign countywide, in a county that is bigger in land area than the state of Rhode Island. Other counties where district commissioners run countywide include Cherokee, Covington, Franklin, Jackson, Morgan & St. Clair.
12 | COUNTY COMMISSION