Code of Alabama
Ala. Code § 17-13-40 (2026)
“Political Party” Defined.
✓ official Alabama Legislature (ALISON) text, current July 2026
An assemblage or organization of electors which, at the general election for state and county officers then next preceding the primary, casts more than 20 percent of the entire vote cast in any county is hereby declared to be a political party within the meaning of this chapter within such county; and an assemblage or organization of electors which, at the general election for state officers then next preceding the primary, casts more than 20 percent of the entire vote cast in the state is hereby declared to be a political party within the meaning of this chapter for such state.
(Acts 1975, No. 1196, p. 2349, §2; §17-16-2; amended and renumbered by Act 2006-570, p. 1331, §61.)
Notes of Decisions
Cited in 7
cases, 2007–2020 · leading case: Johnny Swanson, III v. The State of Alabama, 490 F.3d 894 (11th Cir. 2007).
Johnny Swanson, III v. The State of Alabama, 490 F.3d 894 (11th Cir. 2007). “Code § 17-16-2 (2005) (current version at Ala.Code § 17-13-40); *897 Ala.Code § 17-8-2.”
Stein v. Alabama Sec'y of State, 774 F.3d 689 (11th Cir. 2014). “Ala.Code § 17-13-40. This qualification is only good for the next election, so a party must continually get 20% of the vote for at least one state officer on the ballot in order to qualify under § 17-13-40 for the next cycle.”
Bryan v. Hubbard, 6 So. 3d 491 (Ala. 2008). “See § 17-13-40 and § 17-13-42, Ala.Code 1975.”
Hall v. Merrill, 212 F. Supp. 3d 1148 (2016). “1975 Ala. Code § 17-13-40 . Candidates who run as a member of a political party have their names placed on the ballot after they prevail in their party’s primary—election processes.”
Libertarian Party of Alabama v. Merrill (M.D. Ala. 2019). “CODE § 17-13-40. This qualification is only good for the next election, so a party must repeatedly get 20% of the vote for at least one state officer to qualify under § 17-13-40 for the next cycle.”
Libertarian Party of Alabama v. Merrill (M.D. Ala. 2020). “CODE § 17-13-40. This qualification is only good for the next election, so a party must repeatedly get 20% of the vote for at least one state officer to qualify under § 17-13-40 for the next cycle.”
Jill Stein v. Alabama Sec'y of State (11th Cir. 2014). “Ala. Code § 17-13-40 . This is how the Republican and Democratic Parties, for example, obtain ballot access.”
Annotations are extracted automatically from the opinions in the
Syfert caselaw corpus and ranked by authority, recency, and
treatment. Dots show Syfertize treatment of the citing case itself.