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By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Managing Editor

Election day was busy on many fronts, but especially when it came to several amendments proposed at the state and local level.

There was a total of 10 statewide amendments on the ballot in addition to one local amendment and one amendment to the Constitution of Alabama, and each amendment got a yes vote on Tuesday, Nov. 8.

A breakdown of each vote and what each means is below:

Local Amendment 1

Relating to Shelby County, proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, to authorize the Shelby County Commission and municipalities within the county to authorize and regulate the use of low-speed vehicles, including certain golf carts, on certain public roads.

The amendment passed by a vote of 43,839-18,698. That marked 70.10 percent voting in favor of the amendment.

Constitution of Alabama of 2022 

Proposing adoption of the Constitution of Alabama of 2022, which is a recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, prepared in accordance with Amendment 951, arranging the constitution in proper articles, parts, and sections, removing racist language, deleting duplicated and repealed provisions, consolidating provisions regarding economic development, arranging all local amendments by county of application, and making no other changes.

On a statewide level, this received 1,113,568 total votes with 851,293 voting in favor of the Constitution of Alabama of 2022.Locally, it got approval from 80.79 percent of voters as 48,548 of the 60,090 voters were in favor.

Statewide Amendment 1

Proposing an amendment to Section 16 of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, now appearing as Section 16 of the Official Recompilation of the Constitution of Alabama 1901, as amended, to create Aniah’s Law, to provide that an individual is entitled to reasonable bail prior to conviction, unless charged with capital murder, murder, kidnapping in the first degree, rape in the first degree, sodomy in the first degree, sexual torture, domestic violence in the first degree, human trafficking in the first degree, burglary in the first degree, arson in the first degree, robbery in the first degree, terrorism when the specified offense is a Class A felony other than murder, and aggravated child abuse of a child under the age of six.

One of two amendments to get at least 80 percent of the vote in favor, 997,632 voters across the state were in favor of the amendment for a total of 80.47 percent. That number was even higher among Shelby County voters with 84.33 percent voting in its favor.

Statewide Amendment 2

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, to authorize the state, a county, or a municipality to grant federal award funds or any other source of funding designated for broadband infrastructure by state law to public or private entities for providing or expanding broadband infrastructure.

This amendment was also heavily passed with 78.57 percent of voters giving it a yes, while 79.60 did so on a local level.

Statewide Amendment 3

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, to require the Governor to provide notice to the Attorney General and to the victim’s family prior to granting a reprieve or commutation to a person sentenced to death, and to void the reprieve or commutation if the Governor fails to provide notice.

With the highest percentage of yes votes, amendment three on the ballot received approval from 972,027 residents across the state out of 1,186,903 votes. That equaled out to 81.90 percent of the vote being in favor of the amendment on a statewide level, while that number reached 83.87 percent in Shelby County.

Statewide Amendment 4 

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended; to provide that the implementation date for any bill enacted by the Legislature in a calendar year in which a general election is to be held and relating to the conduct of the general election shall be at least six months before the general election.

With 79.98 percent of voters in favor of this amendment, it was also approved, while 81.71 percent of voters in Shelby County were for it.

Statewide Amendment 5

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, to delete a provision giving the probate court of each county general jurisdiction over orphans’ business.

This amendment also passed, but it received one of the lowest approvals of the amendments on the ballot with 68.71 percent of 778,586 voters voting in favor of it. In Shelby County, the percentage of yes votes grew to 72.26 percent.

Statewide Amendment 6

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended, each municipality authorized under Amendment No. 8 to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, now appearing Section 216.01 of the Recompiled Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended, to levy and collect the ad valorem tax pursuant to Amendment No. 8 for the purpose of paying bonds and the interest thereon, and may also levy and collect such ad valorem tax and utilize such funds for capital improvements on a pay-as-you-go basis at a rate not exceeding the rate then lawfully permitted for the municipality to directly pay the costs of public capital improvements, as well as to pay the principal and interest on bonds, warrants, or other securities issued to finance or refinance the costs of the improvements; and to ratify, validate, and confirm the levy and collection of such tax levied and collected for any of these purposes prior to the ratification of this amendment.

At 60.71 percent in favor, Amendment 6 was the lowest approval of the 10 amendments. A total of 674,971 of the 1,111,783 votes cast voted in favor, while 436,812 were against. Locally, 35,267 voted for it, while 22,959 were against.

Statewide Amendment 7

Proposing an amendment to revise Amendment 772 to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, as amended, to specify that all counties and municipalities may exercise the authority and powers granted by Amendment 772 to provide for economic and industrial development; to permit notice for Amendment 772 projects to be published in any newspaper in circulation in the county or municipality; and to ratify all actions and agreements of any county or municipality done under Amendment 772 unless subject to pending judicial proceedings on the date of adoption of this amendment.

Statewide, 832,667 of 1,104,134 voters were in favor of this amendment for a commanding 75.41 percent, while 75.80 percent of the county was in favor with just 14,002 voting against it out of 57,859 votes cast.

Statewide Amendment 8

Relating to Shelby County, proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, to bring certain privately owned sewer systems that use public rights-of-way of public roads under the jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission under certain conditions.

An important amendment in Shelby County, local residents approved the change with 45,815 of the 61,294 votes in favor. That was good enough for 74.75 percent locally, while the state saw 71.56 percent vote yes.

Statewide Amendment 9

Relating to Jefferson County and Tuscaloosa County, proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, to bring certain privately owned sewer systems that use public rights-of-way of public roads in the city limits of Lake View under the jurisdiction of the Public Service Commission, beginning January 1, 2023 and ending December 31, 2027.

With 953,813 votes cast, 681,441 were in favor of this amendment with 72.51 percent of Shelby County residents voting yes.

Statewide Amendment 10

Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, to authorize the Code Commissioner, contingent upon the ratification of an official Constitution of Alabama of 2022, to renumber and place constitutional amendments ratified before or on the same day as the Constitution of Alabama of 2022, based on a logical sequence and the particular subject or topic of the amendment, and to provide for the transfer of existing annotations to any section of the Constitution of Alabama of 1901, to the section as it is numbered or renumbered in the Constitution of Alabama of 2022.

This one also had a high approval percentage with 74.54 percent of votes in favor of it on a statewide basis and 78.50 percent of Shelby County voters in agreement.