(a) This section shall apply to counties of this state having a population of 500,000 or more according to the last or any subsequent federal census and to no other county.
(b) As herein used, these words and terms have the meanings hereby given them:
(1) CHAIR. The chair of the board of registrars.
(2) COUNTY. Any county to which this section applies.
(c) In every county wherein this section applies the governing body of the county shall appoint the chair of the board of registrars and such governing body may remove the chair; provided, however, that the appointment and removal of the chair shall be subject to the merit system of the county; and the chair shall otherwise be subject to and entitled to the benefits of the law establishing such merit system. The chair shall serve full time, and he, or she, shall receive compensation from the general funds of the county in an amount to be determined by the county governing body, subject to any laws providing for civil service authorities to establish salaries for officers or employees of the county. The chair shall retain up to five hundred dollars ($500) per month of any compensation received from the State of Alabama for serving as chair. All such amounts in excess of five hundred dollars ($500) per month shall be promptly paid by the chair to the county.
(d) The chair shall authorize the principal clerks in the office of the board of registrars to administer oaths and accept application any day of the week from any persons applying to register.
(e) The chair may appoint deputies to the board of registrars. Any such deputy to the board of registrars may register as qualified electors all persons possessing the qualifications prescribed by law for voters, subject, however, to the rules and regulations the chair adopts. The chair may adopt written rules and regulations prescribing the times and places at which, and the conditions and circumstances under which, a deputy to the board of registrars may accept applications for registration at a place other than at the courthouse and prescribing the conditions on which any person filling any such application shall be registered as a qualified voter.
(f) The board of registrars shall meet for the purpose of registering qualified persons as voters or electors at the courthouse on each Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday in each week. If there is in the county a branch courthouse, the board of registrars shall meet at such branch courthouse on the last Wednesday in each month and on the preceding Monday and Tuesday for the purpose of registering qualified persons as voters or electors. The board of registrars shall not meet in any place unless accommodations and necessary facilities for registering qualified persons as voters or electors are furnished to the board. The board of registrars, upon petition of 25 or more resident citizens of any precinct who are 18 years of age or over and who desire to be registered as voters or electors, shall meet at a regularly designated polling place or at such other place as selected by the board of registrars in such precinct of the county on any Thursday or Friday of any week for the purpose of registering qualified persons as voters or electors. The board of registrars shall not, during the two weeks immediately preceding any regular or special municipal, county, state, or federal primary or general election, register any person who will be entitled to vote at such election. Any person who registers less than four weeks, but more than two weeks, immediately preceding any regular or special municipal, county, state, or federal primary or general election shall be placed on a supplemental list of voters and the supplemental list shall be delivered to the polling places prior to the election. In the event that the board of registrars meets pursuant to the third proviso of the next preceding sentence, they shall give at least 20 days notice of the date and time when, and the place and the precinct where, they will meet to register qualified persons as voters or electors, by bills posted at three or more public places in the precinct where they will so meet, and by notice one time in a newspaper of general circulation in the county. Sections 26 and 27 of Title 17, Alabama Code of 1940, Act No. 668 of the Regular Session of theLegislature of 1947 (Acts 1947, p. 509), and Section 17-3-50, shall have no application in the county insofar as fixing the time when the board of registrars shall or may meet for registering qualified voters or electors.