Posted on 04/19/2006 3:41:56 PM PDT by AzaleaCity5691
Primary, Carnival on track to clash Mobile officials horrified by bill that would put 2008 presidential primary on Fat Tuesday Wednesday, April 19, 2006 By DAN MURTAUGH Staff Reporter Mobile County officials said it would be a logistical nightmare if Alabama's 2008 presidential primary fell on Fat Tuesday, as a bill just out of the Legislature proposes.
"Oh, it's going to be awful," said Mobile County Probate Judge Don Davis. "There's no practical way we can conduct an election on Mardi Gras Day."
The bill, which would move Alabama's presidential primary from the first Tuesday in June to the first Tuesday in February, passed in both the state House and Senate and awaits Gov. Bob Riley's signature.
Proponents said an earlier primary would give Alabama voters a louder voice in the presidential nomination process.
In 2008, the law would put the primary on Feb. 5, which also happens to be Fat Tuesday, the day that marks the end of the Carnival season. This year, more than 250,000 people crowded parade routes in downtown Mobile to catch beads, doubloons and other throws.
(Excerpt) Read more at al.com ...
Fat Tuesday Wednesday? Is that like Good Friday Saturday or Easter Sunday Thursday?
Wednesday (today) is the day the article was published
If states keep trying to preempt each other, some states may soon want to hold the Presidential primaries one full year before the general elections.
That would be a better idea than holding it on Mardi Gras Day. I'll be honest, I love the idea of them having an early primary, and the MCA President was right in saying people should do both. The thing is, I don't live downtown, don't see myself living downtown before then, and the truth of the matter is, I rent a hotel room every Mardi Gras, I'm already planning my reservations for next year. Given that we'll be down there from the Saturday on, and given that well, traffic is a nightmare on Fat Tuesday (also given the fact I'm usually not in driving condition early on), if they hold the primary on Fat Tuesday, I, like many of the people here, won't be voting in it. To hold the primary on that day is to deliberately try to disenfranchise one area of the state at the expense of another in order to affect the result.
Can't you vote by absentee ballot?
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