Alabama House votes to end special U.S. Senate elections

Brian Lyman | Montgomery Advertiser

Show Caption Hide Caption Crowd celebrates as Doug Jones is declared U.S. Senate winner The crowd cheers as Democratic candidate Doug Jones is declared the projected winner of the U.S. Senate race against Republican Roy Moore on Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2017, in Birmingham.

MONTGOMERY, Ala. — Alabama is on track to end special elections for the state's two U.S. Senate seats when vacancies occur.

House Bill 17 passed Tuesday on a largely party-line vote with a two-thirds majority of the state House — where Republicans hold two-thirds of the seats — and now moves to the state Senate, where Democrats make up about 1 in 5 lawmakers. It would allow a governor's appointee for U.S. Senate to serve until the next general election.

“You’re taking away from citizens the right to vote,” said Rep. Louise Alexander, a Democrat from Bessemer, Ala.

The bill will save the state costs of a special election, said its sponsor, state Rep. Steve Clouse, a Republican from Ozark, Ala. It addresses only U.S. Senate appointments.

► Jan. 19: Now that Doug Jones is senator, people who elected him want attention

► Jan. 3: Alabama's Doug Jones sworn in as senator, narrowing GOP majority

► Jan. 2: Doug Jones names only black chief of staff in Senate Democratic offices

Thirty-six other states use the methods outlined in Clouse's bill, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. Because the U.S. House has elections in even-numbered years, a general election occurs in every state at least once every two years.

Last year's high-profile special election ran up a tab of $11 million, Clouse said.

► Dec. 27: Doug Jones certified as winner of Alabama special election

► Dec. 19: Black activists hope Alabama victory shifts Democrats' focus to South

It also elected the first Democrat to the U.S. Senate from Alabama since 1992. Former U.S. Attorney Doug Jones beat GOP nominee Roy Moore, a former state Supreme Court justice who had been removed from office twice and was accused of improper advances toward multiple young women when he was a county prosecutor in the late 1970s.

Before Jones' election, which brought the Democratic minority in the U.S. Senate to within two seats of Republicans, Alabama's Republican governor had appointed the state's Republican attorney general, Luther Strange, to fill the seat vacated when the president appointed Jeff Sessions as U.S. attorney general. Two independent senators, Angus King of Maine and Bernie Sanders of Vermont, caucus with Democrats.

► Dec. 15: Trump calls on Roy Moore to concede Senate race: 'He tried.'

► Dec. 13: Right plays Alabama blame game while left rejoices Roy Moore loss

State Rep. Christopher England, a Democrat from Tuscaloosa, suggested that HB17 would prevent voters from expressing displeasure over issues such as the Feb. 9 appointment of Strange, whose office was investigating now-ex Gov. Robert Bentley when Strange was tapped. Bentley resigned April 10, the day the Legislature began impeachment proceedings.

“You would have thought years ago we’d never be in a situation where the governor under investigation would have the ability to appoint the prosecutor in his case,” he said. “We never would have thought of that, ... but in Alabama, it managed to happen.”

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Alabama House Bill 17