Tag: Presidential Election
Where Democratic Presidential Candidates Stand on Major Issues
Alabama voters who choose a Democratic ballot for the March 3 party primaries will see a crowded slate of 14 presidential candidates, but nine of those have withdrawn from the race.
The remaining five active candidates are Joseph R. Biden, Michael R. Bloomberg, Tulsi Gabbard, Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren.
The nine candidates who dropped out of the race for the Democratic nomination are Michael Bennet, Cory Booker, Julian Castro, John K. Delaney, Marianne Williamson and Andrew Yang, along with Tom Steyer, Amy Klobuchar and Pete Buttigieg, who withdrew from the race after disappointing results in Saturday’s primary in South Carolina.
According to a recent Gallup Poll, Democratic candidates selected the following topics as the top five issues in the party’s presidential primary: health care, climate change, gun policy, education and the distribution of wealth and income. Read about their stances.
Where Republican Presidential Candidates Stand on Major Issues
President Donald Trump faces one challenger in the March 3 Republican Party primary in Alabama.
Trump, whose popularity in Alabama is second only to that in Wyoming, shares the top of the GOP ballot with Bill Weld.
A recent Gallup Poll listed the five most important issues for Republican voters as terrorism and national security, immigration, abortion, the economy and education. Read the candidates’ stances on those issues. Read more.
In Homewood, Neighborly Spirit Mutes Politics Despite Close Presidential Vote
(In the early days of a new president, BirminghamWatch has looked at what divides us and connects us close to home. This is the final story in the series.)
Edgewood resident Leo Wright has been an election officer in Homewood for the past four presidential elections, and Homewood Public Library has served as his base every Election Day.
It’s the largest voting location in Homewood and one of the largest in Jefferson County based on registered voters. On Nov. 8, 2016, a total of 3,381 residents voted there, enjoying free coffee and a collegial, jubilant atmosphere that Wright says is typical.
That atmosphere reflects the sense of community in Homewood, says Wright, who served as the registration list clerk and assistant inspector.
But it belies the division among voters in the Over the Mountain suburb, particularly those who cast ballots at the library, where Donald Trump won 49 percent of the votes and Hillary Clinton won 43 percent. Read more.
Other stories from this series:
Fairness and Safety. Education and Jobs. Similar Worries for Clinton and Trump Voters
From Jefferson County’s Trump Country: “I feel like I’ve been left out a lot.”
A Big Blue Dot in a Sea of Red. But Jefferson County’s Presidential Vote Tally Masks Deep Community Divisions
Fairness and Safety. Education and Jobs. Similar Worries for Clinton and Trump Voters
(In the early days of a new president, BirminghamWatch is looking at what divides us and connects us close to home. This is the third of the stories.)
On face value, the political and cultural divide in the Birmingham metro area — and, in larger part, the country — appears to be an ever-widening gulf of competing ideals and values.
But if you take a closer look, you will see that supporters of President Donald Trump and of Hillary Clinton say they want many of the same things from government — fairness, safety and the support to achieve greater success. They value church and family, education and freedom. And they express feelings of disenchantment. Both sides complain of feeling left out, unheard and overlooked.
Birmingham residents, like many interviewed in the Sylvan Springs area for a recent story on Trump Country, said it is important for government to treat people fairly and justly. Many said they want the government to make safety a priority. Read more.
Other stories from this series:
From Jefferson County’s Trump Country: “I feel like I’ve been left out a lot.”
A Big Blue Dot in a Sea of Red. But Jefferson County’s Presidential Vote Tally Masks Deep Community Divisions
From Jefferson County’s Trump Country: “I feel like I’ve been left out a lot.”
(As a new president takes office, BirminghamWatch is looking at what divides us and connects us close to home. This is the second of the stories.)
Driving 20 minutes west of downtown Birmingham and taking a short jog off the interstate lands you solidly in Trump Country.
It’s a world where trees outnumber people and hardware stores are still locally owned, where people believe in hard work and fair play, where voters believe entitlement programs should be cut back, and maybe taxes a bit, too. It’s a world where some people visit Birmingham, but mostly they try to avoid the crime and traffic they perceive in The City.
This is Sylvan Springs, population about 1,542 in the 2010 U.S. Census, more than 97 percent of it white. At the largest polling place in the area, 94.29 percent of voters cast their ballots for Trump in November. That was one of 11 Jefferson County polling places where more than 90 percent of voters cast ballots for the candidate inaugurated as the nation’s 45th president on Friday. Read more.
A Big Blue Dot in a Sea of Red. But Jefferson County’s Presidential Vote Tally Masks Deep Community Divisions
(As the nation inaugurates a new president this month, BirminghamWatch will look at what divides us and connects us close to home. This is the first of the stories.)
Hillary Clinton was the clear winner in Jefferson County on election-day, besting Donald Trump in the race for president by more than 7 percentage points.
But that result doesn’t mean the county escaped the polarization of the 2016 presidential election nationwide or the potential for conflict over public policy in the county and the region.
Clinton won the county with 51.07 percent of the vote, or 156,873 votes, according to certified vote results from the Alabama Secretary of State. Trump took 43.87 percent of the vote, or 137,768 votes. Other candidates and write-in votes accounted for 12,550 votes, slightly more than 4 percent of the ballots cast in the county. Read more.
Calm Before a Storm? Election Workers Prepare for Alabama’s Biggest Voter Turnout
The ballots are stacked, pens gathered, poll workers trained and rolls of “I Voted” stickers ready to go.
Election workers this weekend were taking a “deep breath before the plunge,” as Barry Stephenson, chairman of the Jefferson County Board of Registrars, described it. They’ve been working seven days a week since Labor Day to prepare for what could be historic turnout at the polls, he said.
The state has topped 3.3 million registered voters, Secretary of State John Merrill said last week, surpassing the state’s highest registration by 584,252 registered voters.
Likewise, Jefferson County has set a record for registered voters, with 456,000. Before this, the record was 435,000 for the 2012 election, when 302,000 people voted in the county. Stephenson said the county is expecting more than 300,000 voters to show up at the polls Tuesday.
In preparation, the Jefferson County has increased the number of precincts and added an extra 150 poll workers, bringing the total number to 1,900. There will be more voter sign-in books at the polls in an attempt to avoid long lines, but Stephenson warned, “It still may not be a quick process.” Read more.
