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State Rep. Thomas Jackson, D-District 68, recently pre-filed a bill for the 2025 Legislative Session that looks to bring early voting to Alabama.
In recent years, more and more states across the country have adopted policies allowing voters to cast their ballots early at designated sites. The COVID-19 pandemic, which limited voters’ ability to cast in-person ballots in 2020, inspired many state legislatures to expand alternative voting options — including early voting — to increase ballot box accessibility.
Early voting is a catch-all term that includes both voting by mail and in-person voting. Some states have more restrictive regulations on who is allowed to cast an early mail-in ballot, requiring a valid excuse as to why an individual cannot cast an in-person ballot on Election day, but an increasing number of states are relaxing their excuse requirements to allow anyone to cast an early ballot by mail.
States that offer early voting also vary in just how early that voting period may be. 43 states and Washington D.C. offer early voting more than 7 days before an election, while four states — Oklahoma, Kentucky, Louisiana, and Maryland — restrict their early voting periods to within 7 days of the election or less.
Over 88 million voters cast early in-person and mail-in ballots in this year’s general election, accounting for around 40 percent of all registered voters in the country.
Only three states — Alabama, Mississippi, and New Hampshire — currently provide no early in-person voting options whatsoever and continue to require an eligible excuse to vote by mail. Rep. Jackson’s HB-59 looks to change that for Alabamians.
Specifically, HB-59 would require each of Alabama’s 67 counties to provide at least one “early voting center to be open during the week immediately preceding election day” — allowing registered voters in Alabama to cast their ballot “not less than four days nor more than six days” in advance of Election Day. This would effectively create a two-day window for early voting in the state during the week prior to an election.
The bill states that these early voting centers will be open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekdays and Saturdays, restricting those hours to 1 p.m. to 5 p.m. on Sundays. If a county decides to designate more than one early voting center, it will be responsible for determining which constituents are to attend which polling site during the early voting period.
The House will consider HB-59 during the 2025 Legislative Session, beginning in February of next year. If passed, the law will go into effect on Oct. 1, 2025.
