So reports Jeff Vreeland at Politics in Alabama:
the 1974 rule was not pre-cleared by the Department of Justice. There is record of the DOJ receiving the motion for pre-clearance of the rule change and a record of the response from to the DOJ requesting more information; but there is no record of the approval of the change of the Alabama Democratic Bylaws. The letter sent by the DOJ to Robert E. Vance was requesting more information before the approval could be made. There was no record of receiving any of the requested information from the Alabama Democratic Party or of the bylaws change being approved.
Which should mean, if I understand the rules, that the rule used to oust the candidates never was in force, and therefore could not be used to disqualify them.
Kudos to Jeff for doing the research and reporting on this issue–although Wheeler at Alablawg isn’t sure if this matters or not.
Regardless, this whole affair is an embarrassment to the Alabama Democratic Party–indeed, to the state itself.
My previous post on this topic is here.
Thanks for the link!!
From everything I understand about election law, and from what I have been told this amendment to the bylaws is something that had to be pre-cleared.
It will be interesting to see what happens tomorrow in Montgomery.
Comment by Jeff Vreeland — Saturday, August 26, 2024 @ 1:40 am