By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

Alabaster, Calera, Helena Montevallo and Pelham residents will notice some changes in their Alabama House of Representatives ballots during this year’s elections, as population growth has added a new House district to Shelby County.

State leaders redrew Alabama’s House of Representatives districts after the results of the 2010 census were published, showing exponential growth in Shelby County’s population numbers since 2000.

As a result of the population growth, House District 73 was added to the heart of Shelby County. However, House District 42, which currently includes parts of southwestern Shelby County, now only serves Chilton County.

“Overall, we didn’t really lose or gain anything. We will still have the same number of districts representing Shelby County,” the county’s Republican Party Chairman, Freddy Ard, said during a Jan. 22 interview. “But it is a little bit of a reconfiguration.”

House District 73, which stretches from Shelby County’s southern boundary near Montevallo northward to Pelham, joins House District 43 as the only two districts entirely contained in Shelby County.

“The one thing that will be different is that it will definitely be a Shelby County resident representing District 73,” Ard said. “Those people that live in that district will obviously feel a little more identified with whoever is representing that district.”

As of Jan. 22, Montevallo resident Matt Fridy was the only candidate who had qualified to run for the new House district. Major-party candidates have until Feb. 7 to qualify to run for seats in the Alabama Legislature.

Independent candidates and candidates of parties not receiving more than 20 percent of the entire vote cast in the last general election still have until June 3 to qualify.

Major-party candidates for Alabama’s House of Representatives districts and Senate candidates for Alabama’s 6th Congressional District must qualify with the state Republican and Democratic parties.

To view a map of the old and new Alabama House districts, visit Policymaker.alabama.gov/Districts.aspx and choose “2014 House Districts” in the upper right-hand menu. Old districts are displayed on the left and the new districts are on the right.