WASHINGTON (AP) — Only three of Alabama’s seven congressional districts will hold binding primaries Tuesday in the wake of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that prompted Republicans in a handful of southern states to throw out their congressional maps.
Elections in the four remaining Alabama districts were postponed to an Aug. 11 special primary while state officials restore a previous set of Republican-drawn district boundaries that eliminates one of the state’s
two majority-Black U.S. House seats currently held by Democrats.
The Court-inspired actions in Alabama, Louisiana and Tennessee, as well as earlier legislative actions in other states to redraw their boundaries through mid-decade redistricting, are part of a nationwide Republican effort championed by President Donald Trump to maximize the party’s chances of keeping its U.S. House majority in the 2026 midterm elections.
Only the primaries in the 1st, 2nd, 6th and 7th Congressional Districts were moved to August. Alabama voters will choose nominees Tuesday as planned for the 3rd, 4th and 5th Congressional Districts, as well as for U.S. Senate and a full slate of state and local offices.
In the race for governor, U.S. Sen. Tommy Tuberville and two others seek the GOP nomination to replace term-limited Republican incumbent Gov. Kay Ivey. Among the candidates for the Democratic nomination is former U.S. Sen. Doug Jones.
U.S. Rep. Barry Moore is running for the GOP nomination to replace Tuberville in the U.S. Senate. He faces six other candidates, while four candidates compete for the Democratic nomination.
Moore represents the 1st Congressional District, which will hold its primaries in August. Former GOP U.S. Rep. Jerry Carl is among the contenders for that seat.
Trump has endorsed Tuberville for governor, Moore for U.S. Senate and Carl for the 1st Congressional District. The president’s endorsement should carry significant weight in a state that gave him his sixth-best performance of the 2024 election. In most of Tuesday’s contests, the winner of the Republican primary will hold a significant advantage in the general election.
Alabama requires primary candidates to receive a majority of the vote to avoid a June 16 runoff.
Here are some of the key facts about the election and data points the AP Decision Team will monitor as the votes are tallied:
Polls close at 7 p.m. CT, which is 8 p.m. ET.
The AP will provide vote results and declare winners in contested primaries for U.S. Senate, U.S. House Districts 3, 4 and 5, governor, lieutenant governor, attorney general, secretary of state, treasurer, auditor, agriculture commissioner, Public Service Commission, state school board, state Senate and state House, as well as two amendments to the state constitution.
Any registered voter may participate in any party’s primary. Although Alabama does not register voters by party, voters will be asked to declare a party preference upon selecting a party’s primary ballot.
As of Thursday, there were about 3.8 million registered voters in Alabama.
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 total votes in the corresponding Republican primaries reached or surpassed 600,000.
Relatively few Alabama voters cast their ballots before Election Day. The state is one of the only holdouts in the country not to offer some form of in-person early voting. In the 2024 primaries, about 4% of Democratic primary voters and about 1% of Republican primary voters voted by mail.
Vote release practices vary from county to county. Most counties tend to release results from absentee voting in the first vote update, sometimes along with results from in-person Election Day voting.
In the 2024 primary, the AP first reported results at 8:03 p.m. ET, or three minutes after polls closed. The last vote update of the night was at 1:50 a.m. ET with more than 99% of total votes counted.
The Associated Press does not make projections and will declare a winner only when it’s determined there is no scenario that would allow a trailing candidate to close the gap. If a race has not been called, the AP will continue to cover any newsworthy developments, such as candidate concessions or declarations of victory. In doing so, the AP will make clear that it has not yet declared a winner and explain why.
Recounts for ballot measures are automatic in Alabama if the margin of victory is 0.5% of the total vote or less. In 2010, the Alabama Attorney General issued an opinion that Alabama’s automatic recount law does not apply to primaries. The AP may declare a winner in a race that is subject to a recount if it can determine the lead is too large for a recount or legal challenge to change the outcome.
As of Tuesday, there will be 28 days until the June 16 primary runoff, 84 days until the Aug. 11 special U.S. House primaries and 168 days until the 2026 midterm elections.
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Follow the AP’s coverage of the 2026 election at https://apnews.com/projects/elections-2026/.
