Only three of Alabama’s seven congressional districts are holding binding primaries Tuesday after a U.S. Supreme Court decision prompted Republicans in some southern states to throw out their congressional maps, according to the Associated Press’s election preview.
For the four districts not voting Tuesday, elections are postponed to an Aug. 11 special primary as state officials restore a previous set of Republican-drawn district boundaries, the AP said. The restored boundaries eliminate one of the state’s two majority-Black U.S. House seats that Democrats currently hold, the AP reported.
As a result, Alabama voters will choose nominees Tuesday in the 3rd, 4th and 5th Congressional Districts, and also in statewide races including governor, lieutenant governor and attorney general, among others. The primaries in the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th Congressional Districts are among those moved to August, the AP said.
In the governor’s race, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville and two other Republicans seek the GOP nomination to replace term-limited Republican Gov. Kay Ivey, the AP reported. Democrats are set to nominate a challenger that includes former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones, the AP said.
U.S. Rep. Barry Moore is seeking the GOP nomination for the U.S. Senate seat held by Tuberville, the AP said, and Moore represents the 1st Congressional District, which is one of the districts whose primaries will be held in August. The AP said Moore faces six other candidates for the Republican nomination, while four candidates compete for the Democratic nomination.
The Associated Press also laid out election mechanics for Tuesday’s vote. Alabama requires primary candidates to receive a majority of the vote to avoid a June 16 runoff, the AP said, and polls close at 7 p.m. Central (8 p.m. Eastern).
On party participation, the AP said any registered voter may participate in any party’s primary even though Alabama does not register voters by party. Voters are asked to declare a party preference when selecting a party’s primary ballot, the AP reported.
The AP said that as of Thursday there were about 3.8 million registered voters in Alabama. It added that in 2022 and 2024, fewer than 190,000 votes were cast in each of the Democratic primaries for U.S. Senate, governor and president, while Republican primary totals for the corresponding races reached or surpassed 600,000.
For early and absentee voting, the AP said relatively few Alabama voters cast ballots before Election Day. In the 2024 primaries, the AP reported that about 4% of Democratic primary voters and about 1% of Republican primary voters voted by mail, and it noted that Alabama is one of the only states that does not offer some form of in-person early voting.
The AP said vote release practices vary by county, and that many counties release results from absentee voting in the first vote update, sometimes alongside in-person Election Day voting. In terms of the pace of results, the AP said it first reported results at 8:03 p.m. ET in the 2024 primary, and that the last vote update of that night was at 1:50 a.m. ET with more than 99% of total votes counted.
The AP also described how it will decide whether to call races on Tuesday. It said it does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it determines there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap; if a race is not called, the AP said it will keep covering newsworthy developments such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory and will explain why it has not yet declared a winner.
The AP said recounts for ballot measures are automatic in Alabama if the margin of victory is 0.5% of the total vote or less, and it added that the Alabama Attorney General issued an opinion in 2010 saying the automatic recount law does not apply to primaries. The AP said it may still declare a winner in a race subject to a recount if it determines the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.