Thread by @TabithaK

I'm at the Jefferson County Democratic Convention where Democratic nominees are being selected. Why aren't they being elected in a primary, you ask? 🧵

To get on the ballot (as a major party nominee), a candidate must a) submit forms to the party, b) pay a qualifying fee, c) submit forms to the Secretary of State. The deadline for qualifying is 116 days before the primary. (Which was Nov 10, 2023)

The primary is in March in Presidential years, and in June for midterm years (when state legislators, Governor, etc. are elected). When the primary is in March, the qualifying deadline is in November of the previous year. This date difference is important because....

One of the forms that candidates must complete when qualifying (or shortly thereafter) is the Statement of Economic Interest. This includes disclosing your finances from the previous year's taxes. So this time, candidates had to file their 2022 SEI to run in 2024.

In the past, if you didn't file the form, you'd get a reminder letter and turn it in late without penalty. So a number of candidates -all over the state - didn't get the form turned in on time. 😬 Because of that oversight...

In late December the Alabama Ethics Commission refused to certify hundreds of candidates from both parties across the state, including 13 in Jefferson County. The county Probate Judge then announced that disqualified candidates could not appear on the primary ballot.

Since then, all sorts of legal action has been taken to try to get candidates back on the ballot. A few were successful by proving they thought they'd submitted the form. But many were not. Some were incumbents. Some had no competition for the seat- from either party!

But we do have another way to get a Democratic nominee! We can hold a convention and have the party's executive committee choose a nominee. So instead of primary voters choosing, a committee of approx 50 people choose.

The people who were disqualified cannot be selected, so it's new candidates. It's weird and less democratic than anyone would like, but it's allowed within the law and it's better than not having a Democratic nominee!