Alabama § 11-46-23 - Authority and Procedure for Adjustment of Boundary Lines of Wards, Division of Wards into Voting Districts, Etc.

§ 11-46-23. Authority and Procedure for Adjustment of Boundary Lines of Wards, Division of Wards into Voting Districts, Etc.

The boundaries of wards within municipalities which have been divided into wards as now defined shall so remain until changed by ordinance. Hereafter the municipal governing body may, in its discretion, readjust the boundary lines of wards and may divide or consolidate any number of wards and resubdivide the same into voting districts; provided, that no such adjustment shall be made within three months of any election unless such adjustment is made during calendar year 1984 for the purpose of complying with the Voting Rights Act of 1965 as amended.

Whenever the municipal governing body readjusts any ward lines or divides a ward into voting districts, the ordinance whereby the ward is established or subdivided into voting districts shall describe the territory composing the ward, and when the ward has been subdivided, the territory composing each district therein, by metes and bounds, and the municipal clerk, within five days after adoption of the ordinance, shall file with the judge of probate of the county in which the municipality lies a certified copy of such ordinance, accompanied by a map or plat of the city or town showing the bounderies of all wards and voting districts in wards into which the municipality is then divided and shall also publish notice of all such changes or adjustments of boundaries of wards and voting districts within wards in a newspaper published in such city or town, or if there is no newspaper is published therein then by posting notice thereof at three public places in such city or town. This published notice need not be accompanied by a map or plat of the city or town.