HB 499 Alabama House · 2026 Regular Session

Constables; county commission, authorized to revise number of constables and geographic area served in county

HB 499 authorizes Alabama counties to adjust constable operations through local legislation. It allows counties to revise the number of constables, redraw geographic service areas for constables, or change conditions under which a constable's office becomes vacant. Currently, counties could only abolish the constable office entirely; this bill expands flexibility for local management. The changes would apply to all counties in Alabama and take effect October 1, 2026.

Bill status signed all 5 stages cleared

Introduction

Feb 2026

Committee Review

Apr 2026

House Passage

Mar 2026

Senate Passage

Apr 2026

Signed into Law

Apr 2026

Introduced Feb 24, 2026 Signed Apr 9, 2026

Maddy AI version diff · 1 comparison

What changed between versions

Introduced → Enrolled · 3 edits · Apr 9, 2026

MINOR

The bill transitioned from an introduced draft to an enrolled, final version ready for signing. The core policy content regarding constable offices remained largely the same, but the final version includes a minor grammatical correction in the vacancy clause and adds official certification signatures from the House and Senate leaders.

Scope change

No change in the bill's scope or applicability; it remains applicable to counties in Alabama.

TECHNICAL

A grammatical error in the vacancy provision was corrected to read 'occurs in the office' instead of the original 'removal from such precinct of occurs in the office'.

Official certification signatures and dates from the Speaker of the House and President of the Senate were added to finalize the bill.

Drafting artifacts, including the 'Introduced' header, version numbers, and page headers from the working draft, were removed.

Floor votes

How they voted

This bill passed the Senate by voice vote (no roll call recorded).

Full legislative history

Actions timeline

Total actions

Key actions

Committee

Apr 7, 2026

Upper · Passed

Motion to Read a Third Time and Pass - Adopted Roll Call 1200

upper

Apr 1, 2026

Upper · Passed

Reported Out of Committee Second House

upper

Mar 31, 2026

Upper · Passed

Pending Committee Action in Second House (County and Municipal Government)

upper

Mar 31, 2026

Lower · Passed

Motion to Read a Third Time and Pass - Adopted Roll Call 1093

lower

Mar 11, 2026

Lower · Passed

Reported Out of Committee House of Origin

lower

Feb 24, 2026

Lower · Passed

Pending Committee Action in House of Origin (County and Municipal Government)

lower

1 primary · 0 co-sponsors