How Alabama's Presidential Primary Works
Associated Press
2008-02-04 07:50:00.0
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How Alabama's presidential primary on Tuesday works:
POLL HOURS: 7am to 7pm.
VOTER ID: Voters should bring some identification to the polls, such as a driver's license, Medicaid, Medicaid or Social Security card, birth certificate, passport, or a utility bill or bank statement with the voter's name and address.
OPEN PRIMARY: Alabama has an open primary because voters don't register by political party. At the polls, a voter will choose whether to vote Democratic or Republican, but a voter can't cast a ballot in both primaries.
PICKING DELEGATES: A voter will select a presidential candidate and then vote for convention delegates pledged to that candidate. If a person casts a vote for a delegate not pledged to that person's presidential choice, the vote for that delegate won't count. But the vote for the presidential candidate will count.
ALLOCATING DELEGATES: In the Democratic primary, any candidate who gets more than 15% of the vote in any congressional district will get delegates based on the percentage of the vote. In the Republican primary, the threshold for getting delegates is 20% in a congressional district and statewide. If a candidate gets more than 50% of the vote, he gets all the delegates.
DROPOUTS: Some of the candidates who have dropped out are still on Alabama ballots. Voters can still vote for them and for delegates pledged to them. If the withdrawn candidates cross the threshold for delegates in either party, then their delegates will go to the national convention. The Republican delegates would go as un-pledged delegates, party spokesman Philip Bryan said. On the Democratic side, the delegates would still be pledged to their candidate. Then the candidate could release the delegates to vote for someone else at the convention, party executive director Jim Spearman said.
DELEGATES BEING ELECTED: 34 elected from congressional districts in the Democratic primary. 21 elected from congressional districts and 24 elected statewide in the Republican primary.
(Copyright 2008 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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