Say the words “caucus” or “primary” to Elkmont resident Nancy Wales and her head spins.

“I just go gaga,” said Wales, a former Clements High School counselor and schoolteacher. “I was watching the caucuses for a little while last night and it was just confusing and too complicated. I would like to see it change so everyone could send their vote on-line to a centralized area and forget all of these caucuses and primaries.”

The presidential election process can be confusing (see explanatory story on page 1), causing many people to wonder if their vote truly counts.

Despite the complicated process, more people go to polls for the presidential elections than for local and state elections. In the 2004 general presidential election, 122,267,553 voted nationwide in the presidential election; 1,883,415 cast ballots from Alabama and 28,942 voted from Limestone County, which was about 60 percent of voters registered locally.

Alabama legislators hoped to give Alabamians more of a voice in the process by moving the state’s presidential preference primary from June to Feb. 5, but even that election can be confusing.

“The Alabama Legislature added it in its last session. It enables the state of Alabama to be able to vote on their preference for president at an earlier time to try to impact Alabama’s influence on the nomination process,” said Limestone County Probate Judge Mike Davis.

Typically, by the time of the state’s traditional June primary just a few months before the national conventions, nominations were basically locked, Davis said.

“Alabamians can vote now rather than waiting until nominations have already been decided because candidates have already obtained enough delegates from other states in primaries and already got enough votes to get nominated,” he said. “Alabama was not really a player in that decision (previously). All of this has been advocated by the political parties.”

The Democratic National Convention is Aug. 25 to 28 in Denver, while the Republican National Convention is Sept 1 to 4 in St. Paul, Minn.

What will you vote for?

On Feb. 5, local voters will go to their typical polling places — with the exception of two changes: Those who once voted at Trinity Seventh Day Adventist Church will now vote at St. Mark Primitive Baptist Church at 740 Sanderfer Road and those who voted at Segers Road Volunteer Fire Department will vote at Lutheran Lamb of God Church at 11716 County Line Road.

Deadline to register to vote in the presidential primary is Jan. 25. To register, you must be a U.S. citizen by birth or naturalization and you must be registered only in one county. Call the Probate Judge’s office at (256) 233-6427 or visit http://www.probate.limestonecounty.net/election.htm for more information.

At the polls, voters will declare in which party they intend to vote in the general election. “When you go to the polls on Feb. 5 you must declare which primary you choose to vote in — Democrat or Republican. You can’t vote in both,” Davis explained.

Residents then can vote for a candidate for president and for delegates that will represent the candidate at the convention, but voting must be within that party, Davis said.