Alabama Amendment 1, Exempt Local Bills from Budget Isolation Resolution Amendment (March 2024)

Alabama Amendment 1
Election date March 5, 2024
Topic Administration of government
Status d Defeated
Type Constitutional amendment	Origin State legislature

Alabama Amendment 1, the Exempt Local Bills from Budget Isolation Resolution Amendment, was on the ballot in Alabama as a legislatively referred constitutional amendment on March 5, 2024. The ballot measure was defeated.

A "yes" vote supported exempting local laws or local constitutional amendments from the budget isolation resolution process, which requires that the legislature must pass education and general fund budgets prior to enacting any other legislation, unless the legislation receives a 60% majority vote from the legislature.

A "no" vote opposed exempting local laws or local constitutional amendments from the budget isolation resolution process.

Election results

Alabama Amendment 1
Result		Votes	Percentage
Yes		341,515	48.69%
No		359,850	51.31%

Results are officially certified.

Source

Overview

What would this amendment have changed?

See also: Text of measure and Background

This amendment would have removed the current budget isolation resolution restriction on local laws and local constitutional amendments, thereby allowing them to be considered before budgets are approved without the 60% supermajority vote requirement.

In 1984, Alabama voters approved Amendment 1 with 78.44% of voters in favor and 21.56% of voters opposed. Amendment 1 required that the governor must present a proposed budget to the legislature by the second day of the legislative session. It also required that the legislature pass and present to the governor a bill making appropriations for the basic needs of the state and for education prior to enacting any other legislation. A bill could be exempt from this requirement if at least 60% of the legislature specifically approve a budget isolation resolution exemption.

Since budget bills are generally passed as the last items in a legislative session, the provision effectively requires other legislation to receive a 60% vote.

Who supported and opposed Amendment 1?

See also: Support and Opposition

Senator Clyde Chambliss Jr. (R-30), who sponsored the amendment in the state senate, said he proposed the change to remove an "unnecessary hurdle that has really had no effect on legislation."

Sonny Brasfield, executive director of the Association of County Commissions of Alabama, said the change would "remove questions about how you can effectively and constitutionally move a local bill forward," and remove "any kind of question that could be raised about the number of votes that were required to get the bill to the point that it could be passed."

Ballotpedia did not locate a campaign in opposition to the ballot measure.

Text of measure

Ballot title

The ballot title was as follows:

“

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 2022, to amend Section 71.01 authorizing the Legislature to sign and transmit local laws or constitutional amendments before the transmission of basic appropriations. Yes ( ) No ( )

”

Ballot summary

The Alabama Fair Ballot Commission wrote the following ballot statement:

“ This amendment will change Section 71.01 of the Alabama Constitution. Section 71.01 establishes the priority of the next year’s budgets over the approval of other laws by the Legislature. Currently, Section 71.01 prohibits bills or laws from being considered by the House of Representatives or the Senate before the budgets are approved by the Legislature and sent to the Governor, unless an additional vote is approved by the House and Senate of at least a three-fifths (3/5ths) vote. This amendment will change Section 71.01 to provide exceptions for the passage of local laws or local constitutional amendments. If the majority of voters vote “yes” on Amendment 1, Section 71.01 of the Alabama Constitution will be changed to allow proposed local laws and proposed local constitutional amendments to be considered before the budgets are approved and sent to the Governor without the additional three fifths (3/5ths) vote. If the majority of voters vote “no” on Amendment 1, Section 71.01 of the Alabama Constitution will not be changed and proposed local laws and proposed local constitutional amendments will continue to require the additional three-fifths (3/5ths) vote before being considered. There are no costs or additional taxes related to Amendment 1. The Constitutional authority for passage of Amendment 1 is set forth in accordance with Sections 284, 285 and 287 of the Constitution of Alabama. These sections outline the method a constitutional amendment may be put to the people of the State for a vote. ”

Constitutional changes

See also: Alabama Constitution

The measure would have amended Section 71.01 of the Alabama Constitution of 2022. The following underlined text would have been added and struck-through text would have been deleted: Note: Hover over the text and scroll to see the full text.

Section 71.01 (A) The following words and phrases, whenever used in this amendment, shall have the following respective meanings:

"Basic Appropriations" means, with respect to any regular session of the legislature, such appropriations as the legislature may deem appropriate for the expenditures by the state during the ensuing budget period for the ordinary expenses of the executive, legislative and judicial departments branches of the state, for payment of the public debt, and for education (excluding, however, any item within the scope of the foregoing that is at the time provided for by a continuing appropriation or otherwise).

"Budget Period" means a fiscal year of the state or such period other than [a] a fiscal year as may hereafter be fixed by law as the period with respect to which state budgets are prepared and state appropriations are made.

(B) On or before the second legislative day of each regular session of the legislature, beginning with the first regular session after January 1, 1983, the governor shall transmit to the legislature for its consideration a proposed budget for the then next ensuing budget period.

(C) The duty of the legislature at any regular session to make the basic appropriations for any budget period that will commence before the first day of any succeeding regular session shall be paramount; and, accordingly, beginning with the first regular session held after January 1, 1983, no bill (other than a bill making any of the basic appropriations) shall be signed by either the presiding officer of the house or senate and transmitted to the other house until bills making the basic appropriations for the then ensuing budget period shall have been signed by the presiding officer of each house of the legislature in accordance with Section 66 of this Constitution and presented to the governor in accordance with Section 125 of this Constitution; provided, that this paragraph (C) shall not affect the passage of local laws or local constitutional amendments, the adoption of resolutions, or the conduct of any other legislative functions that do not require a third reading; and provided further, that following adoption, by vote of either house of not less than three-fifths of a quorum present, of a resolution declaring that the provisions of this paragraph (C) shall not be applicable in that house to a particular bill, which shall be specified in said resolution by number and title, the bill so specified may proceed to final passage therein.

D) Upon the signing and presentation to the governor in accordance withthe said Sections 66 and 125 of bills making the basic appropriations, the provisions of the foregoing paragraph (C) prohibiting the final passage of bills in the house and senate (other than bills making any part of the basic appropriations) shall cease to be effective and shall not be revived or become again effective as a result of

(i) the subsequent legislative history of any bill so signed and presented, including any veto, return with executive amendment, or any other action, or failure to act, by either the governor or the legislature under the provisions of the said Section 125; or (ii) a determination, by either judicial decree or opinion of the justices of the Alabama Supreme Court, that any bill so signed and presented is wholly or in part invalid.

(E) The legislature may, by statute or rule, make such further provisions for the timely passage of bills making the basic appropriations as are not inconsistent with the provisions of this Constitution.

(F) Nothing contained herein shall be construed as requiring the legislature to make any appropriation not otherwise required by this Constitution to be made.

(G) Notwithstanding any provision of this amendment, any resolution authorizing the consideration of a bill proposing a local law adopted before November 8, 2016 March 5, 2024, that conformed to the rules of either body of the Legislature at the time it was adopted, is ratified, approved, validated, and confirmed, and the application of any such resolution is effective from the date of original adoption.

Support

Supporters

Officials

• State Sen. Clyde Chambliss Jr. (R)

Arguments

• Bill sponsor and State Sen. Clyde Chambliss (R): "It definitely is what we call inside baseball. And most folks won’t necessarily understand that. It just removes one of those, in my opinion, unnecessary hurdles, that has really had no effect on legislation"
• Sonny Brasfield, executive director of the Association of County Commissions of Alabama: "I think that’s important for everybody to understand. The BIR vote is not the vote that passes the bill. It’s not the vote that makes the bill become law. It’s a crafted, some might say unnecessary procedural step for a local bill. And clearly the Legislature overwhelmingly agreed with that. The average citizen has no idea what the letters BIR stand for. And no one does unless you work your career in this process. I think one of the challenges you always have on constitutional amendments is educating people. We’ll start that with our convention next month as we get our folks a little better educated on this as well. Even for some of our members, it’s a little too much inside baseball right now."

Opposition

Opponents

Ballotpedia did not locate a campaign in opposition to the ballot measure.

Arguments

You can share campaign information or arguments, along with source links for this information, at editor@ballotpedia.org.

Campaign finance

See also: Campaign finance requirements for Alabama ballot measures

	Cash Contributions	In-Kind Contributions	Total Contributions	Cash Expenditures	Total Expenditures
Support	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Oppose	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00
Total	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00	$0.00

Ballotpedia has not identified political action committees registered to support or oppose this measure. If you are aware of one, please email editor@ballotpedia.org.

Background

Budget Isolation Amendment, 1984

See also: Alabama Amendment 1, Budget Isolation Amendment (1984)

In 1984, Alabama voters approved Amendment 1, with 78.44% of voters in favor and 21.56% of voters opposed. Amendment 1 required that the governor must present a proposed budget to the legislature by the second day of the legislative session. It also required that the legislature must sign and present to the governor a bill making appropriations for the basic needs of the state and of education prior to enacting any other legislation unless at least 60% of the legislature specifically approved a budget isolation resolution exemption.

Since budget bills are generally passed as the last items in a legislative session, the provision effectively requires other legislation to receive a 60% vote.

Local amendments in the Alabama Constitution

See also: Alabama Rules for Determining a Local Constitutional Amendment, Amendment 3 (2016)

Prior to the passage of Amendment 3 of 2016, local constitutional amendments were voted on by the entire state of Alabama, unless a three-fifths (60%) supermajority vote of the legislature and a unanimous vote of a constitutional amendment commission determined that the amendment strictly affected or applied to only one county or jurisdiction. Thus, statewide electors often voted on issues that primarily, but not entirely, affected other counties or jurisdictions. After the passage of Amendment 3, local constitutional amendments appear before only the voters in that particular jurisdiction. Amendments to the Alabama Constitution are tacked on at the end and arranged by numbers, not counties.

Amendment 3 provided that, once constitutional amendments receive the votes needed to appear on the ballot, the legislature must also vote on a resolution of local application. If the resolution of local application passed unanimously, with zero no votes, the measure would be placed on the ballot only in the relevant county or jurisdiction. If one or more members of the state legislature voted no on the resolution of local application, the measure would have to be placed on the statewide ballot and receive majority approval from voters statewide and within the relevant county.

In 2022, voters ratified a recompiled and updated state constitution, which arranged all local amendments by county of application. The 2022 constitution includes 134 local provisions. A full list of the local provisions can be found here.

Path to the ballot

See also: Amending the Alabama Constitution

To put a legislatively referred constitutional amendment before voters, a 60 percent vote is required in both the Alabama State Senate and the Alabama House of Representatives.

The amendment was introduced as SB3 on July 7, 2023. On July 19, 2023, the Alabama State Senate passed SB3 by 29-0, with six members absent. On July 21, the Alabama House of Representatives passed SB3 with amendments by 101-2, with zero absences. On July 21, 2023, the Senate concurred with the House's amendments in a vote of 30-0 with five members absent.

Vote in the Alabama House of Representatives July 21, 2023
Requirement: Three-fifths (60 percent) vote of all members in each chamber
Number of yes votes required: 62  a
	Yes	No	Not voting
Total	101	0	2
Total percent	98.05%	0.00%	1.94%
Democrat	28	0	0
Republican	73	0	2

Vote in the Alabama State Senate July 21, 2023
Requirement: Three-fifths (60 percent) vote of all members in each chamber
Number of yes votes required: 21  a
	Yes	No	Not voting
Total	30	0	5
Total percent	85.71%	0.00%	14.29%
Democrat	6	0	2
Republican	24	0	3

How to cast a vote

See also: Voting in Alabama

See below to learn more about current voter registration rules, identification requirements, and poll times in Alabama.

How to vote in Alabama

Poll times

In Alabama, polls are open from 7:00 a.m. to 7:00 p.m. According to state law, "All polling places in areas operating on eastern time shall open and close under this section pursuant to eastern time except the county commissions in Chambers County and Lee County may by resolution provide for any polling place to be excluded from this sentence and to be open according to central time." An individual who is in line at the time polls close must be allowed to vote.

Registration

Check your voter registration status here.

Alabama requires that an applicant be a citizen of the United States who resides in Alabama. A voter must be at least 18 years old on or before Election Day. A citizen cannot have been barred from registering due to a felony conviction and cannot have been declared mentally incompetent by a court.

Voters cannot register during the 14-day period preceding an election. According to the Alabama Secretary of State's website:

“

You may download the State of Alabama Postcard Voter Registration Application from this site. The form can be printed on your printer, filled out, and then mailed into your local voter registration officials. Click here for more information. You may also request a postcard voter registration from this office by e-mail. Click here to request a voter registration form. Voter registration is also available from your local County Board of Registrars. Click here to get the address and phone number for the board of registrars office in your county. You may also obtain voter registration services at the following state and local government offices and agencies: Driver's licensing office County and select municipal public libraries Department of Human Resources WIC Program, Department of Public Health Medicaid Agency Department of Rehabilitation Services The postcard voter registration form is also available at: Public 4-year universities Select private 4-year universities Driver's licensing office County and select municipal public libraries Department of Human Resources WIC Program, Department of Public Health Medicaid Agency Department of Rehabilitation Services

”

Automatic registration

Alabama does not practice automatic voter registration.

Online registration

See also: Online voter registration

Alabama has implemented an online voter registration system. Residents can register to vote by visiting this website.

Same-day registration

Alabama does not allow same-day voter registration.

Residency requirements

To register to vote in Alabama, you must be a resident of the state. State law does not specify a length of time for which you must have been a resident to be eligible.

Verification of citizenship

See also: Laws permitting noncitizens to vote in the United States

An Alabama state law, passed in 2011, requires people to provide proof of U.S. citizenship when registering to vote. However, as of June 2025, the law had not been implemented.

In 2013, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that states cannot require proof of citizenship with federal registration forms. That meant states would need to create a separate registration system for state elections in order to require proof of citizenship. Alabama Secretary of State John Merrill (R) said the following: "That’s an election administration nightmare ... You’d have to have two sets of poll books, one for federal elections and one for state elections, and that just doesn’t make any sense to me."

An individual applying to register to vote must attest that they are a U.S. citizen under penalty of perjury.

All 49 states with voter registration systems require applicants to declare that they are U.S. citizens in order to register to vote in state and federal elections, under penalty of perjury or other punishment. Seven states — Alabama, Arizona, Georgia, Kansas, Louisiana, New Hampshire, and Wyoming — have laws requiring verification of citizenship at the time of voter registration, whether in effect or not. In three states — California, Maryland, and Vermont — at least one local jurisdiction allows noncitizens to vote in some local elections. Noncitizens registering to vote in those elections must complete a voter registration application provided by the local jurisdiction and are not eligible to register as state or federal voters.

Verifying your registration

The Alabama Secretary of State's Voter View website allows residents to check their voter registration status online.

Voter ID requirements

Alabama requires voters to present photo identification at the polls. The following list of accepted forms of identification was current as of September 2024. Click here for the most current information, sourced directly from the Office of the Alabama Secretary of State.

“

Valid Alabama Driver’s License (not expired or has been expired less than 60 days) Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Digital Driver’s License Valid Alabama Nondriver ID (not expired or has been expired less than 60 days) Alabama Law Enforcement Agency Digital Nondriver ID Valid Alabama Photo Voter ID Card Valid State-Issued ID (Alabama or any other state) Examples Valid AL Department of Corrections Release - Temporary ID (Photo Required) Valid AL Movement/Booking Sheet from Prison/Jail System (Photo Required) Valid Pistol Permit (Photo Required) Valid Federal-Issued ID Valid US passport Valid Employee ID from Federal Government, State of Alabama, County, Municipality, Board, or other entity of this state Valid student or employee ID from a public or private college or university in the State of Alabama (including postgraduate technical or professional schools) Digital student ID from a public or private college or university in the State of Alabama (including postgraduate technical or professional schools) Valid student or employee ID issued by a state institution of higher learning in any other state Digital student ID issued by a state institution of higher learning in any other state Valid Military ID Valid Tribal ID

”

A voter can obtain a free identification card from the Alabama Secretary of State, a county registrar's office, or a mobile location. The mobile location schedule can be accessed here.

Voters must also provide a copy of valid photo identification when applying for an absentee ballot, with the exception of 1) voters for whom polling locations are inaccessible due to age or disability, and 2) overseas military members.

See also

2024 measures

• 2024 ballot measures
• Administration of government on the ballot
• State legislatures measures on the ballot

Alabama

• Alabama ballot measures
• Alabama ballot measure laws

News and analysis

• Ballot measure lawsuits
• Ballot measure readability
• Ballot measure polls

External links

• Alabama SB3 (2023)