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VALLEY — Chambers County Probate Judge Paul Story talked about the upcoming municipal elections in Alabama at Monday’s meeting of the Valley Lions Club, held at San Marcos Mexican Restaurant. For many years, city elections in Alabama took place during presidential election years. Several years ago, Governor Kay Ivey delayed them one year to 2025.

According to the Alabama League of Municipalities, this year’s election calendar includes the following dates:

May 26th, 2025: the final day the council can change the district lines.

May 28th: the final day a person can become a resident of the municipality and district they would be eligible to vote in.

June 5th: the last day the council can adopt an ordinance establishing application fees.

June 10th: the mayor gives notice of the election, candidates can start qualifying with the city clerk with a statement of economic interest being filed with the Alabama Ethics Commission.

June 24th: last day to qualify.

July 15th: the mayor must file a qualified voters list with the clerk.

July 25th: last day to display a sample ballot.

July 27th: last day to establish residency to vote in a municipal election.

July 29th: Final day for the mayor to deliver absentee ballots and absentee election supplies to the city clerk,

August 11th: Last day for the council to appoint election officials.

August 12th: last day to publicly test electronic vote counters.

August 15th: last day to publish lists of election officers and voting places.

August 21st: last day for a voter to hand deliver an application for a regular absentee ballot, the last day to publish a list of qualified voters and the last day to conduct a training school for officials who will conduct an election using electronic voting machines.

August 25: last day a voter can apply for an emergency absentee ballot.

August 26th: election day. If needed, a runoff election will be taking place on September 23rd.

Story told members of the club that there had been some changes in elections in Alabama since he was elected to office. “The probate judge’s office was where everything was filed when I was first elected,” he said. “It has changed some following Covid. Some filings are now done with the Secretary of State. Two-and-a-half years ago it became official for the Secretary of State to oversee all of them.”

While most smaller cities in Alabama still use electronic machines to tabulate the votes, there’s a growing movement to use what’s known as electronic poll books. Typically, these devices are either a laptop computer or tablet.

They allow for a faster and more efficient vote than the former poll books, which were printed. Electronic poll books can do much more than look up eligible voters. The state has been going more and more to this method since 2016.

Municipal elections in Chambers County will be taking place on August 26th in Valley, Lanett, LaFayette and Five Points. All will be conducted with the new electronic method.

For Story, election days are always hectic. “They are both frustrating and fun,” he said. “We have good working relationships with all of our cities, and I am grateful for that.”

The qualifying fees haven’t changed. It’s still $50 with the money going to the local political party.

“We will never refuse anyone the right to vote,” Story said, “but we have the accountability to make sure it was done legally.”

In addition to their responsibilities for elections, probate judges in Alabama have a wide variety of other duties as well including overseeing the administration of estates, guardianships, mental health commitments and serving as a custodian of public records.

Commissioner Sam Bradford, who’s a member of the club, asked Story to talk about the settlement of a lawsuit against pharmaceutical companies over opioids. Story said that Chambers County would be getting $300,000 out of it but with some strings attached on how the money can be spent.

The county will be getting the money in increments of $100,000.

Much of this money will be targeted toward helping those county residents who have co-occurring issues of mental illness and illegal drug use.

The county has seen a reversing trend in gaining, rather than losing, bed space for those individuals who have these co-occurring issues. This additional bed space is being made available for Chambers County residents at Brief Intensive Treatment (BIT) in Opelika. “We’ve been losing bed space in recent years,” Story said. “It’s good to be getting them instead, especially after losing the geriatric psych unit at EAMC-Lanier.”

In its recent transition to a rural emergency hospital, EAMC-Lanier no longer keeps patients for more than 24 hours. It still provides vital emergency services as well as a variety of outpatients services including diagnostic imaging, physical therapy and rehabilitation services. Its campus is also home to a 103-bed nursing home.

Facilities such as the geriatric psych unit were relocated to the main campus of EAMC in Opelika.

Chambers County is playing a prominent role in the state’s Stepping Up program. It’s a pilot program in this effort to break the cycle of re-incarceration for those with a serious mental illness.

What makes the program impactful is the fact that it not only provides services to the individual level while working on the policy and systems levels to create a continuum of care with individuals with serious mental illness and co-ocurring mental illness. The recidivism rate among Stepping Up clients is significantly lower than the state’s overall recidivism rate.