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Monday, February 8, 2010
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Ballot full Tuesday
Published November 1, 2008
Heavy turnout and a long wait for results are expected across Alabama for Tuesday’s elections.
“We’re going to have a good turnout,” Marshall County Probate Judge Tim Mitchell predicted.
Polls will be open from 7 a.m. until 7 p.m. Tuesday across the state. Albertville voters will cast ballots at First Baptist Church and the Recreation Center, not the Crossroads Mall as they did in municipal elections in August and October.
Although there have been lengthy lines in states with early voting, Mitchell doesn’t expect similar problems here.
“The only slowdown that I expect at all will be when people first get there to sign in and get their ballots,” he said.
“Once they get their ballots, there shouldn’t be any problems having to wait. We’ve got, we think, a sufficient number of poll workers throughout the county. It’s just going to take a little while for people to show their ID and sign in and get their ballots.”
Mitchell noted there would be several ballot styles since all voters can’t vote on all races.
Residents in three different County Commission districts will be among the voters at the Albertville Recreation Center.
“We’ve got five different ballot styles,” Mitchell said. The voter list indicates which ballot the voter should receive.
At the top of the ballot is the race for president.
Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and John McCain, R-Ariz., are facing off in a heated race for the White House.
Neither man carried Marshall County in the Alabama primaries in February. Obama carried the state but lost big in the county to Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y.
McCain lost the area and state to former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee.
Polls show Obama with a lead nationally, both in popular vote and in the Electoral College. However, those leads could tighten.
A Democrat has not carried Marshall County since President Carter lost his re-election bid to Ronald Reagan in 1980.
Congress: Sen. Jeff Sessions is considered a lock for a third term.
Sessions has a wide lead in polling and fundraising over Democratic state Sen. Vivian Davis Figures.
Both Figures and Sessions are from Mobile.
Rep. Robert Aderholt, R-Haleyville, is expected to win a seventh term in Congress. He faces Jasper attorney Nicholas B. Sparks, a Democrat.
A heated congressional race has garnered attention locally. Democrat state Sen. Dr. Parker Griffith and Republican lobbyist Wayne Parker are vying for the 5th District seat being vacated by longtime Rep. Bud Cramer, D-Huntsville.
Both Griffith – who owns several funeral homes in the area – and Parker have advertised heavily on local television stations, but the 5th District doesn’t include Marshall or DeKalb counties.
State races: The most expensive judicial race in the nation is for a seat on the Alabama Supreme Court.
Democrat Deborah Bell Paseur and Republican Greg Shaw are facing off for an associate justice seat.
Paseur is a retired Lauderdale County district judge. Shaw is a judge on the state’s Court of Criminal Appeals.
The ballot also includes three seats for appellate judgeships.
Former Lt. Gov. Lucy Baxley, who lost a bid for governor in 2006, is running for president of the Public Service Commission.
The Democrat is facing former Republican Party leader Twinkle Andress Cavanaugh.
Amendments: Alabama has six proposed constitutional amendments on the ballot.
Amendment 1 has drawn the most attention. It would expand the ability of the state Legislature to tap the Alabama Trust Fund to avoid shortfalls in the education budget and would allow the Legislature to tap the trust fund for shortfalls in the general fund budget as well.
The other amendments relate to cities and counties outside the area.
A local amendment in Marshall County would abolish the supernumerary system for certain retired elected county officials.
Marshall County Commission: Two Marshall County Commission seats will be on select ballots Tuesday.
District 2 pits longtime Democratic incumbent R.E. Martin versus Republican challenger James Maze.
Martin was unopposed in the primaries.
Maze defeated Shannon “Shan” Parsons by a 33-vote margin in the Republican primary runoff July 15. Maze tallied 335 votes to Parsons’ 302.
District 3 features two new faces as Democrat Danny E. Pankey and Republican Richard Kilgore face off.
Pankey had no opposition in the primaries.
Kilgore defeated two-term incumbent Buddy Allen by 177 votes in the Republican primary runoff July 15. Kilgore garnered 647 votes to Allen’s 470.
People who live in the commission districts may vote even if they live inside a city.
Marshall County revenue commissioner: Tuesday’s election will decide the victor in the Marshall County revenue commissioner race between incumbent Republican candidate Joey Masters and his opponent, Democratic candidate Lynn Walls, the county’s chief revenue clerk.
Experience has been the main issue in both campaigns.
Masters notes that he is the only person in county history to serve as tax assessor, tax collector and revenue commissioner and said Walls has not served in every department of the tax office.
Walls says she is basing her campaign on her 22 years working at every level in the tax office, the last 11 years managing the day-to-day operations of the revenue commissioner’s office.
Marshall County Board of Education: Voters served by the Marshall County School Board of Education have three choices Tuesday. Democrat Alan Childress and Republican Terry Kennamer and a write-in candidate, Republican Sherwin Wigley, will square off for Place 5.
Wigley, of Douglas, was defeated in the primaries by Tony Cooley. Cooley later dropped out of the race in September, citing personal reasons.
Wigley launched his write-in campaign after the county’s Republican Executive Committee chose Kennamer to replace Cooley on the ballot.
Wigley’s name will not appear on the ballot and voters must hand-write his name on the ballot, he said.
The winner of Tuesday’s race will replace John Allen, a longtime board member who, after originally seeking re-election, dropped out of the race before the Democratic primary due to health reasons.
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ELECTION CENTRAL: The results are in
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