On Nov. 4, Alabamians will participate in a nationwide election for the president and vice president. We also will vote on five state officials (a Supreme Court justice, one judge for the court of civil appeals, two for the court of criminal appeals and the Public Service Commission president) and some local officials as well as some constitutional amendments.
Conducting an election across 67 counties requires substantial organizational effort by state and local officials, which is carried out with little fanfare and tends to be taken for granted. Alabama has avoided the large-scale election controversies that have plagued some states in recent years.
Election administration involves many officials. Under state law, the chief elections official of Alabama is the secretary of state. At the local level, the county judge of probate has a similar position.
The County Commission has responsibility for voting places and the equipment involved; it also pays poll workers with partial state reimbursement in some cases. The sheriff, circuit court clerk and probate judge, acting as a group, select poll workers and canvass election results.
The voting privilege is open to Alabama residents who are citizens of the United States, are at least 18 years old and have not been disqualified by a criminal conviction or declared mentally incompetent by a court.
Those who want to vote in the November election must be actively registered with their county’s board of registrars by the Oct. 24 deadline.
Currently there are 2.6 million active registered voters in Alabama. About half the counties have fewer than 20,000 active registrants, while the four largest counties have more than 100,000 each.
Jefferson County has the largest active registration list at more than 390,000, while Bullock County has the smallest at just more than 7,000.
Presidential elections generate the largest voter turnout in Alabama. In the presidential preference primary held in February, 43 percent of active registered voters participated, while the primary for other offices held in June drew only 15 percent. More than 72 percent of active registered voters participated in the last presidential election in 2004.
Ours is a representative democracy, and its health depends on active citizen interest and participation in electing the officials who govern us.
EDITOR’S NOTE — Jim Williams is executive director for the nonprofit, nonpartisan Public Affairs Research Council of Alabama.
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