Alabama voters on Nov. 8 will vote to ratify a recompilation of the Alabama Constitution that will strip Jim Crow-era language and reorganize the unwieldy governing document.
A copy of the proposed constitution of Alabama of 2022 is seen at the statehouse in Montgomery, Ala., on Tuesday, Nov. 1, 2022. Alabama voters on Nov. 8 will vote whether to ratify a recompiled Alabama Constitution that strips racist language and deleted repealed and redundant sections. The state's governing document will remain the longest in the United States at over 300,000 words.
Voters in 2020 authorized state officials and lawmakers to cut the racist language that lingers from the era of racial segregation. That work, finally completed, now goes back before voters to ratify theProponents say the changes that will demonstrate Alabama is a different place today — and streamline the sprawling constitution to be more user-friendly.
To approve the measure, voters must vote ‘Yes’ on the question asking whether to ratify the “Constitution of Alabama of 2022. ” The ratification question will appear on the ballot after the list of candidates for office. There is also a separate amendment, Amendment 10, to authorize the code commissioner to renumber and nest the newest amendments within the Constitution.
The Alabama Constitution has language allowing parents to opt for students to “attend schools provided for their own race" and sections about poll taxes, bans on interracial marriage and a convict labor system in which Black Alabamians, often arbitrarily arrested, were forced to work in mines and labor camps. The provisions were long ago invalidated by court rulings or later amendments, but the language remains in the state's government document.
Tom Spencer, a senior research associate at Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama, said the proposal will strip remaining racist language. However, it will continue the current structure that centralizes power in the Legislature, and will not change the state's tax structure.
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