Alabama holds a special congressional primary today in four of its seven districts, the 1st, 2nd, 6th, and 7th, and the map underneath the ballots is the story [1][2]. Voters are choosing nominees under the congressional lines the Alabama Legislature drew in 2023, put back into service after the United States Supreme Court in June vacated the court-ordered map, in the words of the governor's office, "allowing for the use of the 2023 Alabama-drawn congressional map" [1]. There is no runoff; today's winners go straight to the November 3 general election [1].
The sequence of rulings is what a voter needs to hold onto. The legislature drew these lines in 2023. Federal courts reviewing them found they likely diluted Black voting strength and kept them out of use, which is why a court-ordered replacement map governed instead. The Supreme Court's June decision vacated that replacement [1]. Nothing about the lines themselves changed in June; what changed is which institution's judgment controls. Today is the first time votes are counted under the restored lines, which makes this primary the first measurement of what the whole fight was about.
Gov. Kay Ivey, who called the election in May, has been direct about what she believes the ruling settled. "Alabama knows our state, our people and our districts best. The United States Supreme Court's decision is plain common sense and enables our values to be best represented in Congress," she said [1]. She added: "For years, we have fought for this outcome, and I am proud to celebrate this win for Alabamians" [1]. Taken at full strength, her position is that an elected state legislature, not a federal court or its appointed mapmaker, should draw the state's districts, and the Supreme Court has now sided with the state on which map governs. That is the outcome Alabama litigated for across multiple years and multiple courtrooms, and it won.
The counter-record is what the earlier rulings said: judges who examined these lines concluded they likely diluted the voting strength of Black Alabamians, a finding serious enough that the state was not permitted to use the map while the litigation ran. The June decision restored the map without erasing that history. Voters in the 2nd and 7th districts, the seats where the dilution fight centered, are today the measurement instrument.
The conditions of the test matter. Polls close at 7 p.m. Central, 8 p.m. Eastern [2]. Alabama offers no in-person early voting; it is one of the only states in the country without some form of it [2]. There is no runoff, so a plurality tonight is a nomination [1]. Turnout context comes from the spring: about 409,000 ballots were cast statewide in the May 19 primaries, roughly 11 percent of registered voters [2]. A special election in August, with a single 12-hour voting window, is the format that historically draws even fewer.
The ballot lines are set. In the 2nd District, six Republicans are competing to face Democratic Rep. Shomari Figures in November, among them state Rep. Rhett Marques, Army veteran Joshua McKee, and real estate broker Hampton Harris [2]. In the 7th, two Republicans, Ammie Akin and David Perry, are competing for the nomination to challenge Rep. Terri Sewell [2].
The general election is November 3, 84 days from today [2]. Whatever tonight's count shows, it will be the first data anyone has on how the restored map performs with real voters, and both sides of a years-long fight will read it that way.
