Locals will vote ‘presidential preference’ in Feb. 5 primary

By Kelly Kazek and Jean Cole
kelly@athensnews-courier.com

January 07, 2008 09:12 am

— 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.
“For example, if you choose to vote Democrat, you will have a list of all Democratic presidential candidates that have qualified in Alabama and their delegates,” Davis said. Some candidates may not have qualified in Alabama, he said, although he does not know the reason.
Democratic presidential candidates qualified in Alabama are Joe Biden, Hillary Clinton, Barack Obama, Christopher Dodd, John Edwards and Bill Richardson. Biden and Dodd have withdrawn from the race since ballots were printed.
Republican candidates qualified in Alabama are Hugh Cort, Rudy Guiliani, Mike Huckabee, Duncan Hunter, Alan Keys, John McCain, Ron Paul, Mitt Romney, Tom Tancredo and Fred Thompson. Tancredo has withdrawn.

The party line
Once voters have declared a party and marked a presidential preference, they may then vote for convention delegates.
Rules for voting for delegates differ by party.
On the Democratic ballot, voters will see a list of delegates who represent individual candidates and some who are uncommitted to a candidate. These delegates, listed in a sample ballot on page 14A, must declare which candidate they will support at the party’s national convention so your vote for that delegate will result in a vote at the convention for your presidential preference.
If they do not declare which candidate they will support at the convention, they are listed as “uncommitted” and will determine later how they will vote at the convention.
“Instructions for Democrats are to vote for not more than four women and not more than four men delegate candidates who are committed to the presidential candidate you voted for at the top of the ballot,” Davis explained. “Or not more than four women and not more than four men running ‘not committed’ if you did not commit to a presidential vote.”
However, residents who choose an uncommitted presidential preference may vote for uncommitted delegates.
If you choose Obama, you may vote for all four women representing Obama and four of the 10 men representing him. You may not choose any delegates who support other candidates or who are not committed to a candidate.
Republicans also will have a list of delegates representing certain presidential candidates, see sample ballot on page 15A. But voters may choose only one delegate from each pair of delegates. The delegates must be supporters of the candidate chosen by the voter as a presidential preference.
For example, if you declare Republican and choose John McCain as your presidential preference, you may choose to vote between delegates Terry L. Butts and Don Fisher in Place 2; between delegates Matt Lembke and Christy Swaid in Place 3 and between delegates S.C. Butts and Swaid N. Swaid in Place 4.
In this example, you will vote for three delegates. Some candidates have more delegates representing them and some fewer. If you choose Guiliani, for example, you will vote for four delegates; choose Huckabee and you will vote for only two.
Any ballots with cross votes — voting for delegates who support someone other than the person you chose as your presidential preference — will result in your ballot cast for delegates not being counted.
As is typical, Davis is expecting a higher number of voters at polls this year because of the presidential election, although most will turn out in November for the general election.
Still, fewer than half of Americans — about 40 percent in 2004 — take advantage of the right, freedom and privilege of voting, causing some to wonder if the process keeps people away.
“People don’t understand the election process enough to get interested enough in it to change it,” said Carolyn Crow, owner of Pablo’s on Market in downtown Athens. “Most of us are like that whether we are educated or uneducated, rich or poor.”

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