State Senate

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The Alabama State Senate is composed of 35 Senators, in keeping with Article IV, Section 50, of the Constitution, which limits the House of Representatives at 105 members, and the Senate at 35, and with Article IX, Sections 197 and 198, which establishes membership in the Senate at not less than one-fourth, nor more than one-third, the total membership of the House of Representatives, and allows for additional representation in the event new counties are created. Thus, the Alabama Senate is precisely one-third the size of the House of Representatives, and each Senator represents a district of approximately 120,000 Alabamians.

Under Article IV, Section 47, of the Constitution, Senators must be at least 25 years of age at the time of their election, must be citizens and residents of the State of Alabama for at least 3 years, and residents of their district at least one year, prior to election.

Senators, like members of the House of Representatives, are elected for four-year terms, and take office at midnight of the day of their election. Amendment 97, to the Constitution, provides that should a vacancy occur in either house of the Legislature, the governor is required to call a special election to fill such vacancy.

While the House of Representatives has exclusive power to originate revenue bills, such legislation can be amended and/or substituted by the Senate. Moreover, because the Senate is considered to be the "deliberative body", rules concerning length of debate are more liberal than those of the House of Representatives.

Like the United States Senate, the Alabama Senate has sole power of Confirmation of certain appointees designated by the Constitution and by statute. The ancestral antecedent of this power is a similar power vested in the Roman Senate, during the period of the Republic.