The Alabama House passed the SAVE Act party registration bill Thursday that Republicans say will protect the integrity of their primaries, delivering on a pledge Speaker Nathaniel Ledbetter made just two days earlier to bring the bill to the floor.
HB541, the SAVE Act, sponsored by State Rep. Ernie Yarbrough (R-Trinity), passed 63-35 and now moves to the Senate, where Sen. Sam Givhan (R-Huntsville) is carrying the legislation.
Yarbrough said the bill reflects a conviction he has held since his earliest days in Republican politics.
“This has been something from my days growing up in Young Republicans door knocking,” Yarbrough said. “This is something that has been a lot of discussion in my district. People are very much in favor of it.”
Before the final vote, the House adopted an amendment from House Pro Tem Rep. Chris Pringle (R-Mobile) exempting absentee ballot managers from the party registration requirement, which passed 93-0.
ALGOP Chairman Scott Stadthagen praised the vote, saying Republicans have sought this reform for more than a decade and that the bill protects primary voters from outside interference.
The bill drew opposition from both Republican and Democratic members. Rep. Phillip Rigsby (R-District 25) said his constituents don’t want to be forced into a party label.
“I have a district with a lot of independent voters. They want the ability to go to the polls and pick the ballot for the person that they would like to vote for,” Rigsby said. “I can’t go back to my district in good faith and tell those voters that I’m forcing them to be a part of a party that they may or may not want to join.”
House Minority Leader Rep. Anthony Daniels (D-Huntsville) argued that if the party wants to change the rules, it should pay for it.
“When a party decides that it wants to change the rules and deny or force individual citizens to fall in line with the rules that they’re setting, I do think it should be the responsibility of the actual party to foot the bill,” Daniels said.
State Rep. Chris Blackshear (R-Phenix City) questioned what problem the bill actually solves given the GOP’s sustained electoral growth.
“In 2010 the Republicans took the majority. Then in 2014 that grew. In 2018 it grew. Now we sit at 76,” Blackshear said. “What advantages do we get now by closing the primaries when it seems to be that we’ve been doing pretty good since 2010?”
State Rep. Barbara Drummond (D-Mobile) raised the stakes for the state’s roughly 300,000 independent voters.
“What if I am a voter who don’t want to be in either of those parties? What do I do?” Drummond said. “You’re standing there telling me that they got to declare to you first. It doesn’t make any sense to me.”
Under HB 541, Alabama voters would be required to register a party affiliation before voting in a primary or primary runoff election beginning January 1, 2027. The bill would not affect the May 19, 2026 primary.
Thursday was day 24 of the legislative session. There are six legislative days remaining.
Sawyer Knowles is a capitol reporter for Yellowhammer News. You may contact him at [email protected].
