Written by Mike Hobson
January 15, 2024
Several ballot access issues in local and state races across Alabama have been recently reported in multiple news media. These issues are causing candidate consternation and predictions that some of the ballot denials may be contested in the courts.
In Bibb County Attorney Darold Mathews filed the required qualifying documents through Alabama GOP headquarters to run for Bibb County District Judge. When the state party certified candidates for the spring primary Mathews name was omitted from the list of certified candidates the party sent to the Secretary of State on December 14, 2023.
Little did Mathews know at the time he qualified that two campaign donations he made in 2018 would disqualify him from participating in the 2024 Republican party. Read on for more detail.
There are other ballot issues, with both political parties, in other parts of the State this cycle.
The Perry County Democratic Party made the decision to remove Commissioner Ben Eaton from the Perry County Primary ballot. This followed his failure to submit an Alabama Statement of Economic Interest to the Alabama Secretary of State within the required time frame. Commissioner Eaton was running for re-election to his first term, representing District 5.
State law requires candidates who qualify to seek public office to file a statement of economic interest within 5 days of qualifying. This statement requires candidates and public officials to disclose sources of income for themselves and their spouses, as well as details about their total household income and total debt in ranges.
Commissioner Eaton is among the dozens of candidates across Alabama who have been disqualified from the March 5 primary due to not submitting the required economic interest filing form on time. The decision has been highly contested by multiple candidates from both the Republican and Democratic parties who have filed lawsuits to overturn the disqualification, including in Jefferson and Montgomery counties. This has left Eaton as the only candidate seeking office in Perry County that faced disqualification.
AL.com reports that 13 Democratic candidates have been disqualified in Jefferson County alone for the same reason, creating a crisis for the party.
According to the Daily Mountain Eagle, at least nine candidates have been disqualified from the ballots in Walker County due to the technicality. The Alexander City Outlook reports that two candidates, one Republican and one Democrat, will be removed from the ballot for failing to submit the form on time.
In Montgomery, Irva Reed—sister of Mayor Steven Reed—will be ineligible to appear on the ballot for Montgomery County Commission due to the same error, as reported by the Montgomery Independent.
In Tuscaloosa, businessman Tripp Powell was removed from the ballot in a state Senate race according to an al.com article after a complaint about his $500 campaign contribution to Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox during the Democratic primary for governor in 2018.
Contributions to Democrats became the stumbling stone for Bibb County candidate Darold Mathews. The candidate, who lives in Bibb County, is an attorney associated with a Birmingham area law firm. Most of the judges in Jefferson County are members of the Democrat party. In 2018 Mathews made a $100 contribution to a Bessemer probate judge and a $200 donation to a Birmingham circuit judge.
Mathews told the Centreville Press that he was not aware when he qualified that these two donations years ago would disqualify him from participating as a Republican candidate in 2024. After Mathews was notified that the Alabama GOP was investigating a complaint about the donations, he appeared before the GOP Candidate Committee, along with Bibb County GOP Chairman Jerry Pow, to answer questions before the final certification deadline of December 14.
The Alabama GOP has applicable standing rules that read, in part, that the State and County Committees:
“shall deny ballot access to a candidate for public or Party office if in a prior election that person participated in the primary election of another political party, publicly supported a nominee of another political party or an independent candidate, financially contributed to a candidate of another political party or an independent candidate, or was a member or officer of a club that is strictly aligned with another political party.”
“The provisions of this Rule shall apply for a period of six years after such person so participated but actions taken by incumbent Republicans or 2022 Republican nominees prior to the passage of this amended standing rule shall be exempt from consideration.”
After Mathews and party chairman Pow appeared before the candidate committee the committee did not vote to override the automatic disqualification that was setup by the language of the standing rules.
Alabama GOP Chairman, John Wahl, appeared at the monthly meeting of the Bibb County GOP on December 21 after hearing unrest from the local party chairman and members of the Bibb County committee about the decision. Wahl acknowledged that prior to the initial certification deadline of Dec. 14, Mathews was denied ballot access in accordance with ALGOP’s Bylaws and Standing Rules. As a result, the candidate was not certified on the initial list of candidates submitted to the Secretary of State.
The decision of the GOP leaves the Bibb District Judge incumbent Craig Cargile currently unopposed for the 2024 primary election.
After a lengthy discussion and polite exchanges with Bibb GOP party members and former candidate Mathews the GOP chairman acknowledged that the language of the written rule, which has been amended three times and approved by majority vote of the State Executive Committee, could be further clarified. Wahl pledged that the language of the standing rule that led to the disqualification of Mathews would be re-visited for clarification by the party at future Executive Committee sessions.
Mathews said that he was disappointed by the action taken by the GOP to block him from the ballot and accepts the painful decision. He also said that voters may still have an opportunity to vote for him in the Bibb County District Judge race when he appears on the November ballot as an Independent candidate.
The statewide primaries will be held on March 5, 2024.
Those candidates who choose to not run as a political party candidate may obtain ballot access by submitting a petition to the Secretary of State, if seeking a state or federal office, or to the Judge of Probate, if seeking a county office. There is no qualifying fee. For ballot access in the 2024 General Election, the petition must be filed no later than the date of the primary election, March 5, 2024, by 5:00p.m.
A ballot access petition for an independent candidate must contain signatures of registered Alabama voters. The number of valid signatures on the petition must equal or exceed at least 3 percent of the qualified electors who cast ballots for the office of governor in the last general election in the political jurisdiction for which the independent candidate is seeking ballot access: statewide, countywide, or district.
