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Update, 2008-01-31: John Edwards and Rudy Giuliani have each withdrawn.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

“Naming Politicians not always easy for Alabamians”

The Mobile Press-Register and the University of South Alabama Polling Group surveyed 407 adult residents of the state last week, asking them to name such political figures as the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, Alabama’s two U.S. Senators, U.S. Speaker of the House, etc.  Amazingly enough, “more Alabamians could identify [Speaker Nancy Pelosi] than were able to name either of the state’s two senators.”  Yikes!

One more time, folks: Alabama’s U.S. Senators are Jeff Sessions and Richard Shelby.  If you don’t know who represents you in the U.S. House, go to the House web site & enter your zip code + 4.  (If you don’t know your +4, go to the Post Office’s Zip Code Lookup site.]

In order to find out who represents you in the Alabama Legislature, use their zip code lookup.