Alabama Pre-Primary Snapshot

The Census Bureau has released a snapshot of Alabama’s voting age citizens in advance of the Presidential Primary Election on Tuesday.  In comparison with the U.S. as a whole, Alabama has a much lower percentage of its population that is Hispanic or Latino (2.5% vs. 14.8%), and a lower percentage of the population hold a bachelor’s degree of higher (21.1% vs. 27.0%).

Alabama Election Information

As you may know, Alabama has moved up the date of its primary election - this year the Democratic and Republican presidential preference primaries (say that three times fast!) are scheduled for February 5th.

In case you’re not registered to vote, there’s still time! According to the Secretary of State’s voter registration page, voters must be registered no later than 10 days before the election. There’s a form on the SoS web site you can download, fill out, and send; you can also pick up an application in the Government Documents Reading Room here in Gorgas Library.

The Secretary of State’s 2008 election page is a great place to start if you’re getting up to speed on what Alabamians will be asked to vote for. The certified list of Democrats on the ballot for the February primary are: Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Christopher J. Dodd, John Edwards, Barak Obama, and Bill Richardson. The certified list of Republicans includes: Dr. Hugh Cort, Rudy Giuliani, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Alan Keyes, John McCain, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Tom Tancredo, and Fred Thompson. [Note: Tancredo has dropped out of the race for President.]

Update, 2008-01-04: Joe Biden and Christopher Dodd have announced their departure from the Democratic race for President, following the Iowa Caucus results.

Update, 2008-01-10: After 4th-place finishes in both Iowa and New Hampshire, Bill Richardson has dropped his presidential bid.

Update, 2008-01-23: Fred Thompson is no longer in the race. Neither is Duncan Hunter .

Update, 2008-01-25: Today is the last day to register to vote in order to be eligible for the February 5th primary.

Update, 2008-01-31: John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani have each withdrawn.

Presidential Campaign Finance Map

If you haven’t already seen it, you should check out the FEC’s 2008 Presidential Campaign Finance Map.  It allows anyone to view campaign contributions to parties and to specific campaigns, by state or by zip code [first 3 digits].  For instance, at the time of this posting, Ron Paul has received $6,650 in contributions from folks in Alabama.  You can select his name, then see which zip codes the contributions have come from.  Same with Chris Dodd.  Or, you could select the state of Alabama & see which zip codes the majority of contributions to all have come from.  Eventually you will see the names of the contributors to each campaign.

Note: If a candidate is not listed once you’ve selected a particular state, that is an indication that they haven’t received any contributions from individuals in that state.

2008 Elections

All everyone seems to talk about these days is the 2008 presidential election (well maybe not everyone…but it’s definitely dominating the news).  Today Tom Tancredo, Republican of Colorado, announced that he’s running.  Wednesday it will be former Wisconsin Governor and Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy Thompson.  For more information on that race, check out the 2008 Presidential Campaign blog.
There will be plenty of other races in 2008 as well.  Here in Alabama, in addition to all of the Representatives running for re-election, Senator Jeff Sessions is running for re-election.  He does not yet have an opponent.