Secretary of State Agrees to Provide List by 5 p.m. Thursday

In an emergency court hearing Thursday morning, Montgomery County Circuit Court Judge William Shashy indicated that he will sign an order to give the Alabama Democratic Party a copy of the registered voter list statewide, based on an agreement reached between the party and Alabama Secretary of State Beth Chapman.

The order, following a lawsuit filed by the party last Friday to gain access to the list for the Nov. 4 General Election, will immediately grant Alabama Democrats access to the latest voter file, ending a month-long fight over the party’s right to be granted a free copy of the file for the General Election of 2008.

Chapman will provide both the Democratic and Republican parties with an updated copy of the official registered voter list by close of business Thursday.

According to the agreement, Chapman must make free copies of the list available to both parties before each primary and general election held within the state. Both the Democratic Party and Secretary Chapman agreed the statute needed revision and will attempt to craft a bi-partisan solution in a future session of the Alabama Legislature.

Until that change in the law is made, Secretary Chapman agreed she will provide a free copy to the state parties for a primary and general election in the same year.

The ruling comes after Chapman’s attempt to collect a penny a name from the parties for the list, which would have amounted to more than $28,000 from the Alabama Democratic Party in exchange for access to the list. It had been provided free of charge to the parties in prior elections for the entire history of the state. It is not clear why the Republican Secretary of State wanted to charge for the list.

“We need to know who’s registered and who isn’t registered, so we can contact these people that aren’t registered in the next 30 days and encourage them to register to vote,” Democratic Party chair Joe Turnham said when he addressed the media in a press conference held at the party headquarters in Montgomery last week. “Our candidates need the latest and best lists so we can conduct an election.”

In a statement released today, Turnham said he was relieved the impasse was over and thanked Judge Shashy, Beth Chapman, and attorneys James Anderson and Jean Brown for their efforts to settle the matter.

“Alabama Democrats will fight every day to make sure that all eligible voters are empowered by the electoral process,” Turnham said. “We feel that we won a victory for the people of Alabama today.”