Jefferson County Clerk’s Office Redesigns To Handle Throngs Of Voters
The circuit clerk’s office at the Jefferson County Courthouse was closed Monday for Columbus Day, but staffers in the office weren’t taking a holiday.
“The absentee staff is working on the mail today, getting out ballots, the ballots that have been returned,” said James P. Naftel II, the presiding probate judge of Jefferson County. “[Columbus Day is] a state holiday and the circuit clerk’s office is closed for in-person voting today but it will reopen tomorrow.”
It’s been a working weekend of those in the clerk’s office as they have set the stage for what they hope is a more efficient processing of in-person absentee voters. Another 24 workers also have been added to the staff to help handle the lines of in-person absentee voters.
“Last week we were running into a bottleneck because people were having to go in and out of this one door,” the probate judge said. “We’ve been working real hard over the weekend to reconfigure everything so we have a lot more people in and out in a lot faster time.”
Tables with plexiglass line the hallway to the right of the clerk’s absentee voting office on the fifth floor of the courthouse.
“Up and down the hall here, we’ve expanded to be able to accommodate very many more in-person voters than we were able to last week,” Naftel said.
People will fill out their ballots in the jury assembly room that is across the street in the parking deck building. Once they have filled out their ballots and had a copy made of their identification there, voters go to the clerk’s office on the fifth floor.
“We’ll have people on computers along these tables that will then enter that application into what’s called Power Profile with the state to verify that they’re a registered voter and to identify what ballot of the 60-some-odd different ballot styles we have in Birmingham,” Naftel said. “They’ll bring that ballot out (and) they’ll enter the serial number, so to speak, for that ballot for that voter to match them up.”
Several voting stations are in the fifth-floor hallway to the left of the clerk’s absentee voting office.
“Then they’ll bring their completed ballot to one of these tables where they can fill out their affidavit and have it witnessed and put in the envelope,” the judge said, “and then they will drop their ballot into the ballot security boxes that will be out here.”
Naftel credits Circuit Clerk Jacqueline Anderson-Smith with leading the effort to redesign to space.
“We’ve all been working real hard over the last few days to get this to expand the capacity of this thing,” he said. “Up until last week, we were doing fine and then we were kind of overwhelmed with hundreds of people coming in. In response, we’re really trying to expand what we can do and how fast we can do it so you don’t have to wait so long.”
State Department to deny visas to fact checkers and others, citing ‘censorship’
The order is focused on applicants for H-1B visas, which are frequently used by tech companies and is part of a campaign by the Trump administration against online content moderation.
Libraries and museums get federal funding back after Trump cuts
Earlier this year, the Trump administration gutted the Institute of Museum and Library Services, leading to canceled federal grants. Now, after a court order, those grants are being reinstated.
You read that white: Pantone’s 2026 Color of the Year is ‘Cloud Dancer’
This is the first time Pantone has chosen a shade of white. The company says it's "a lofty white that serves as a symbol of calming influence in a society rediscovering the value of quiet reflection."
CDC advisers delay planned vote on hepatitis B vaccine for infants
After a contentious discussion, the vaccine advisory group pushed the vote to Friday to give members time to study the language of proposed changes longstanding policy on the shots.
DOJ orders prison inspectors to stop considering LGBTQ safety standards
A memo obtained by NPR shows the Justice Department is telling inspectors to stop evaluating prisons using standards designed to protect trans and other LGBTQ community members from sexual violence.
U.S. reconsiders Tanzania ties after deadly post-election crackdown
The U.S. is "comprehensively reviewing" its relationship with Tanzania after hundreds were killed in a violent post-election crackdown.
