Roughly 3.5 million people are registered to vote in the state of Alabama—a record high number of registrations for the state—but that doesn’t help if the voters don’t actually turn out to vote. 

According to the final tallies, there were 1,254,330 votes cast in the 2016 primary in Alabama. There are an estimated 4.888 million people in the state so that means that only roughly 1/4 of the state cast their votes in the primary. 

Later, in that year’s general election, 2,123,372 voters cast their votes for president for Trump, Clinton, two independent candidates—Gary Johnson and Jill Stein—and various other write-in candidates. 

This Tuesday, March 2, is Alabama’s primary election day for the 2020 general election. The options for Presidential candidates and US Senate are on the ballot for this primary, as is a statewide constitutional amendment to transition the State Board of Education from an elected body to one appointed by the governor and a number of delegates.

If you aren’t sure where your polling place is, you can find it at myinfo.alabamavotes.gov. You can also find information there to register to vote for the general election, if you aren’t already registered. To see a sample ballot for your election, visit sos.alabama.gov and choose your county and party.  

This paper isn’t in the habit of telling you who to vote for, but we will always encourage you to vote.  Do your research. Vote for your candidates. Take charge of the future of the city, county, state and country you live in. Someone will be elected to these positions, don’t you want some say in who that is?