Jefferson County Democrats are facing an election crisis with more than a dozen candidates disqualified to run for office by the Alabama Secretary of State, AL.com has learned.

In all, 13 candidates, including the current county treasurer and her opponent, were ruled ineligible to run in the March 5 primary because they failed to turn in state ethics forms by the required deadline.

The statement of economic interests form requires candidates and public officials to list sources of income for them and their spouses, and information about their household income and total debt in ranges.

“My focus over the next few days will be to assist them in any way possible in their quest to get back on the ballot,” Wayne Rogers, chair of the Jefferson County Democratic Party told AL.com. “We will do everything in our power to make sure that happens.”

Jefferson County candidates currently listed as disqualified are:

• Mara Ruffin Allen, Jefferson County Treasurer
• Lawrence Anderson, Constable District 15
• Charles E. Alexander, Jefferson County Assistant Tax Collector, Bessemer
• Andre Glenn Bennett, Constable District 51
• Nell Brown, Jefferson County B.O.E., Place 2
• Kasandra Duncan Brundidge, Jefferson County B.O.E., Place 1
• Robert Colvert, Constable District 54
• Danielle Lewis Matthews, Jefferson County Assistant Tax Collector, Bessemer
• Tara Nix, Constable District 59
• Eyrika L. Parker, Jefferson County Treasurer seeking re-election
• Cheryl Hamilton Long, Constable District 56
• Joan Singleton, Jefferson County Assistant Tax Collector, Bessemer
• Charles R. Winston III, Constable District 56

According to state law, candidates must file the statement of economic interest form within five days of qualifying to run for office. Failure to comply with the filing requirement means “the person shall not appear on the ballot and the candidate shall be deemed not qualified as a candidate in that election,” the law says. The Alabama Ethics Commission must certify whether candidates have filed the form.

If the penalties stand, then Jefferson County will have no current candidate on the ballot for Jefferson County treasurer. Both incumbent Eyrika Parker and challenger Mara Ruffin Allen are currently listed as disqualified. There is no Republican opposition.

“Both of them are well qualified ladies who would do a very fine job, and my focus would be to get them on the ballot,” Rogers said.

The party’s executive committee would have to name a replacement if candidates are not restored to the ballot.

Parker, who has about year left in her first term as treasurer, said she would continue her race for reelection.

“I’m not going to quit,” she said Saturday evening “This is just the beginning.”

Although Jefferson County has a high number, the candidate purge is statewide and bipartisan, Rogers said. That includes nine Republicans kicked off ballots in Walker County. Rogers estimated that as many as 200 candidates are receiving notice of disqualification.

“There will be folks in almost every county who will be disqualified,” he said.

There appears to be one bright spot, Rogers said. At least one candidate, Hamilton, has evidence to show that she complied with the filing requirement, he said. That documentation will be presented to officials on Wednesday, Rogers said.

A court judge could have the final decision in who is on the ballot.

A previous disqualification in Jefferson County was reversed in court in 2018. A Montgomery County Circuit Court ruled that Pamela Cousins followed the spirit and intent of the law when she filed her paperwork to run for district judge in Jefferson County and ordered her name back on the ballot.

Cousins was disqualified because she had not filed a Statement of Economic Interests with the Ethics Commission. Cousins said she filed the required statement with the Democratic Party when she qualified to run for the judgeship and also filed a copy of it with the state Supreme Court, as well as a financial disclosure statement. But she had not filed the form with the Ethics Commission, as required by law.

Still, the court ruled that Cousins had “complied with the spirit and the intent of the statute in question and acted in good faith.”