Brian Lyman | Montgomery Advertiser

The Democratic National Committee last week ordered the Alabama Democratic Party to hold new leadership elections no later than August 17.

The DNC’s credentials committee also demanded answers to questions on existing state bylaws and procedures, which the DNC wants changed.

“A lack of engagement or action by the ADP that does not comply with this order would likely put the credentials of the challenged parties in jeopardy,” Patrice Taylor, the director of party affairs for the DNC, wrote in an email sent on Friday and obtained by the Advertiser.

The DNC should hold a meeting in San Francisco on Aug. 22. Failure to respond to the request could place the Alabama party's standing with the national party in jeopardy. The Alabama Democratic Party has already missed one deadline to hold new elections.

The directions come after months of back-and-forth between the national and state party over the governance of the Alabama Democratic Party.

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Messages seeking comment were left on Monday morning with Alabama Democratic Party chair Nancy Worley and Birmingham attorney Richard Rouco, who represented individuals who challenged Worley’s election at a meeting of the State Democratic Executive Committee (SDEC) last August.

At the election, Worley held off a challenge to her leadership backed by U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, but the DNC ordered new elections in February, ruling that some members of the SDEC lacked the proper credentials to vote.

Under current by-laws, Joe Reed, the state party’s vice-chair for minority affairs can name a certain number of individuals to the SDEC to reflect the presence of African-Americans in the state party electorate. Critics say that method for determining the number of people to reflect that is not transparent and can allow Reed to name people to the SDEC at will.

The DNC has signaled it wants the full SDEC to approve those nominations before the members are seated. The DNC has also asked the state party why the organization does not use independent parliamentarians or court reporters to record meetings of the SDEC, or why there are no candidate forms for party positions.

The DNC also ordered changes to the party by-laws, saying they did not provide representation for Hispanic, Asian, LGBTQ, youth and those with disabilities. The national party also wants the Alabama Democratic Party to consider a separate diversity caucus to handle those nominations, though the diversity caucus could also nominate African-American candidates where appropriate.

Worley submitted proposed bylaw changes to the DNC on June 24. The Rules and Bylaws Committee of the DNC decided at a June 28 meeting that it needed more information.

Critics of Worley charge that the party under her leadership has allowed infrastructure to wither and provided little help to Democrats running for state office. Worley has said most party resources have been used to service accumulated debt.

Worley plans to stand for re-election as chair. She is being challenged by Will Boyd, the Democrats’ nominee for lieutenant governor last year, and Tabitha Isner, the Democrats’ candidate for the 2nd congressional district, which includes Montgomery, in 2018.

The DNC ordered new elections last February, with an initial deadline of May. But Alabama Democratic Party leaders have at times questioned the DNC's authority to do so. In March, members of an executive committee of the state party elected an at-large member to the SDEC, despite DNC instruction not to do so before new party bylaws were approved.