Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

If you’ve watched any kind of national news over the last few weeks, then you know that the calendar is quickly moving toward Super Tuesday.

Obviously, most of the focus will be on the presidential election, where Democratic candidates will try to use the 14-state gauntlet, which includes Alabama, to land a defining blow on their way to the nomination. (For anyone curious, two more states — Nevada (Feb. 22) and South Carolina (Feb. 29) — will vote before Super Tuesday, though the Democratic field is unlikely to be thinned too much before March 3.)

That’s a largely important day, and that’s true even in Alabama, where Republicans remain the dominant party. 

The Republican primary ballot includes a vote for president, where Donald Trump and Bill Weld are the nominees.  Past that, many of the votes are for statewide delegates, but that doesn’t mean there aren’t important races on the ballot.

There are two local races in the Republican primary — revenue commissioner and board of education district four. Incumbent Beth Abney is taking on Shannon Frailey in the revenue commissioner race and Jay Siggers and Doug Thomas are up for the board of education seat.

(As a note for candidates, the newspaper will accept announcements for all local candidates up until Friday, Feb. 21. It’ll run in the bottom left of the newspaper, must be 300 words or less and needs to be emailed to Daniel.evans@lagrangenews.com. A high-quality headshot should also be included.)

Several judge positions are also on the Republican statewide ballot in Alabama. One interesting amendment is on both the Republican and Democratic ballots.

If passed, it would change the name of the position of the state’s board of education and superintendent positions. More importantly, it would create a governor-appointed state school board, rather than an elected one.

The Democratic ballot also includes a choice of delegate for your choice for president, plus the race for president of the public service commission (which is a partisan race and is also on the Republican ballot.)

We’re less than a month away from Super Tuesday and the clock is ticking, so now is the time to study your candidates and get informed before heading to the voter box.

The Secretary of State website has sample ballots and other information on the election on its website and is a great place to start any research.

The last day to register to vote for the March 3 primary is Feb. 17, so if you’re not registered, get that taken care of this week.